Risky Business Wide World of Cyber: Microsoft's China Entanglement
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Aug 25, 2025 
In this discussion, cybersecurity experts Alex Stamos, former CISO at Yahoo and Facebook, and Chris Krebs, founding director of CISA, dive deep into Microsoft's controversial ties with Chinese engineers. They uncover how these collaborations raise unsettling national security concerns, particularly regarding the integrity of military cloud systems. Stamos and Krebs also debate the tricky balance between ethical business practices and profit in China’s tech landscape. The conversation highlights implications for trust, transparency, and the tech industry’s future.
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Chinese Engineers Supporting US Gov Cloud
- Microsoft allowed Chinese-based engineers to produce code that was then pushed into U.S. government cloud instances via U.S. employees acting as intermediaries.
- Chris Krebs described this arrangement as shocking and a failure of common-sense governance.
FedRAMP Pain And Escorted Access
- Alex Stamos recounted refusing to allow foreign engineers to access FedRAMP environments in his shop and described the operational pain of FedRAMP compliance.
- He explained why multinational support and 24/7 follow-the-sun operations complicate strict citizen-only support rules.
Cloud Competition Shapes Risk Choices
- Cloud providers compete fiercely for government contracts, and compromises can arise from that pressure.
- Alex Stamos said Microsoft, Amazon, and Google shape different risk postures in the race for GovCloud business.