Prescott Paulin’s Post

Geoffrey Browning Leslie Beavers check this out... Wild.

Hi Prescott, I used to run half the worldwide Windows support team, and whilst your ticket related to a login it was another team I'm less familiar with, perhaps I can be a little reassuring. After hours for the US, there should be at least one other resolver group your ticket could be routed to that's not in China. The agent didn't suggest this option, and maybe she was right, but also maybe another support team in another country does exist in that circumstance. It's also possible your ticket was raised against a support contract that routes to entirely the wrong group, though, and maybe using another contract would keep you within a DoD-appropriate group. If you have a Microsoft employee customer success account manager aligned to your group, you could ask them to verify it was routed right and under the best contract. Hopefully there's a better answer than what you experienced.

Whiskey Foxtrot Tango?

This shouldn’t be a surprise. The DoD and Federal government is fundamentally dependent on a software vendor in this case with ties to foreign adversaries, despite claims it’s above the Chinese intelligence laws. Couple that with repeated vulnerabilities leading to exploitation impacting U.S. agencies. The real question is, will the Government change its purchasing behaviors? Otherwise, why would anything change? https://thehill-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/4714050-microsofts-cybersecurity-vulnerabilities-endanger-america/amp/

Microsoft - who warned us about the danger of China's "Volt Typhoon" and recently (04/24) provided guidance to the DoD regarding Microsoft's "Zero Trust" security architecture - was allegedly caught right before Independence Day sending after-hours tech support requests by DoD contractors to China?!?!? Seems like "Whisky Tango Foxtrot" might not be a strong enough response. By golly you just can't make this stuff up! Frankly, I'd feel safer trusting a hacker from India promising to rid my computer of suspected viruses ;-)

That’s crazy. Does AWS or Google do this? Dave Spencer Peter Guo

YIKES. Data custody and cyber supply chain need to have the same standards as physical supply chains. It’s also time to audit Big Tech with the same scrutiny that all contractors should be met with. I also don’t want people to forget about Microsoft Copilot’s continuous recording program with their OpenAi partnership and the litany of data security and privacy issues that Big Tech (including Google, Apple, Meta,etc.) continues to allow. After Microsoft had anti trust actions against them, Microsoft (rightfully) figured if they sold to the government, they could insulate themselves. Google recently figured out the same - funny how Google Public Sector growth and lobbying efforts began at around the same time.

Maybe Microsoft figured that no one knew DOD infrastructure as well as China. 😂 But seriously 😭

I mean, what could possibly be bad about this?