Microsoft President Brad Smith was intensely questioned by a House homeland security panel on Thursday regarding the company's security practices and connections with China.
According to Reuters, this comes a year after China-linked hackers reportedly infiltrated Microsoft systems to spy on federal emails.
China-Linked Hackers Compromise Systems of Microsoft
Hackers reportedly compromised 60,000 State Department emails through Microsoft's systems. Earlier this year, Russia-linked hackers breached the emails of Microsoft's senior staff.
These incidents have raised concerns among lawmakers about the security of federal networks, especially given Microsoft's role as a major vendor to the US government, representing about 3% of the federal IT budget.
During a hearing about the company's security failures, lawmakers expressed frustration over Microsoft's inability to prevent both the Russian and Chinese hacks.
They highlighted that federal networks were still compromised despite hackers not using sophisticated means. Rep. Bennie Thompson criticized Microsoft for not detecting the breaches.
"Microsoft is one of the federal government's most important technology and security partners, but we cannot afford to allow the importance of that relationship to enable complacency or interfere with our oversight," Thompson noted, as Reuters reported.
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Brad Smith Admits Shortcomings of Microsoft
Brad Smith acknowledged the shortcomings highlighted in a report by the Cyber Safety Review Board, admitting that Microsoft should have been more transparent.
He assured the panel that Microsoft was acting on the report's recommendations and emphasized the growing threats from nations like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
The panel also questioned Smith about Microsoft's business operations in China. Smith noted that the company earns around 1.5% of its revenue from China and is cutting its engineering presence there.
He also said that Microsoft was working on enhancing its processes and implementing security benchmarks.
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