Microsoft says it will no longer use China-based engineers to support the Pentagon. But ProPublica found that the tech giant has relied on its global workforce for years to support other federal clients,

The move comes after a ProPublica report highlighted a Microsoft program that allows foreign engineers to indirectly interact with U.S. military systems through American “escort” intermediaries.

Microsoft is investigating whether a leak from its early alert system for cybersecurity companies allowed Chinese hackers to exploit flaws in its SharePoint service before they were patched, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Hackers sponsored by the Chinese state have breached a number of U.S. government institutions, including the agency responsible for overseeing the security of America’s nuclear arsenal, Microsoft warned.

Chinese workers are accompanied by US citizens functioning as 'digital escorts,' but the practice functions 'with little review,' according to a ProPublica investigation.

After a ProPublica investigation raised security concerns, Microsoft will cease using China-based engineers for work on sensitive Pentagon cloud computing systems.

New estimates regarding the recently-exploited Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities now evaluate that as many as 400 organizations may have been targeted.

A series of cyberattacks targeting Microsoft collaboration software, specifically SharePoint, have been linked to Chinese hackers and threat actors.