Microsoft 'escort' program gave China keys to Pentagon

Is the data encrypted? Can vendors, escorts or foreigners read the data?

Access to a cloud DB is one thing. Failing to encrypt "data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin" is another.

>Crowley said he also met with prospective customers across the government and told ProPublica that the Defense Department was the “one making the most demands.” Concerned about the company’s global workforce, officials there asked him who from Microsoft would be “behind the curtain” working on the cloud. Given the department’s citizenship requirements, the officials raised the possibility of Microsoft “hiring a bunch of U.S. citizens to maintain the federal cloud” directly, Crowley told ProPublica. For Microsoft, the suggestion was a nonstarter, Crowley said, because the increased labor costs of implementing it broadly would make a cloud transition prohibitively expensive for the government.

Microsoft told the US Gov that MS could not hire US citizens exclusively because it would cost the US Gov too much. What?

Does MS have any actuaries or critical thinkers on staff? I would love to see a cost benefit analysis where risking foreign access to this data comes out ahead of charging the US government more and employing US citizens to do the work.

I am deeply worried that the macho American march toward conflict will fail because of misalignment of incentives. Ideallistically, US gov outsources functions to private contractors. Fine. They have gotten away with murder (unfortunate pun) with cost plus contracts since Desert Storm 2. Now, those contractors send the work abroad in the name of arbitrage and profit. Not fine.

Stepping back, a majority of American voters beat the drums of war hoping to also profit privately. They look forward to defense industry jobs and profits. This feeds an international arms race that is very familiar.

We are Sisyphus. The world is rearming like it did in the run-up to WW1 and WW2. We are pushing the boulder up the hill again.

Why? Is it a matter of illiteracy (doomed to repeat history due to not learning about it), institutional inertia (governments worldwide behaving rationally), the human condition (we will continue to want more)?

It is looking like Einstein was right. I'm gonna invest in trees and plan on selling some sticks.