Episode
How Microsoft’s “Little Workaround” Created a Major Pentagon Threat
- Podcast
- Paper Trail
- Published
- Jul 9, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2031
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
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Summary
A source told reporter Renee Dudley something she found hard to believe: that Microsoft was running tech support for the Department of Defense through China, the country’s biggest cybersecurity adversary. The arrangement was called “digital escorting.” She thought it sounded like a conspiracy theory — until she started looking into it. This is the story of what she found and how her investigation changed government policy. Read More: www.propublica.org/article/microsoft-digital-escorts-pentagon-defense-department-china-hackers Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate .