Defense Secretary Hegseth says Chinese nationals can't work as coders on DOD cloud systems

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that Chinese nationals are no longer allowed to be coders on cloud systems at the Department of Defense.

“It blows my mind that I’m even saying these things — it's such common sense — that we ever allowed it to happen," he said in a video posted to the social media platform, X. "That’s why we’re attacking it so hard. We expect vendors doing business with the Department of Defense to put U.S. national security ahead of profit maximization."

Hegseth said under his leadership in July, an Obama-Biden media legacy program was discovered called "Digital Escorts."

He said that under the program, Microsoft has been able to use Chinese coders remotely supervised by U.S. contractors to support sensitive DOD cloud systems. 

Hegseth said it exposed the department to "unacceptable risk."

“I mean, if you’re thinking America first and common sense, this doesn’t pass either of those tests," he said. "So I initiated an immediate review of this vulnerability, and I want to report our initial findings."

Pentagon officials said they weren't aware of the “digital escort” program involving Microsoft, according to The Hill newspaper.