China's Cyber Threat: Microsoft, Pentagon, and US Security
Jul 29, 2025
Pentagon investigates Microsoft's use of Chinese engineers on DoD systems, raising national security concerns. An elite Chinese cyber spy group, Salt Typhoon, hacked US National Guard networks and major internet companies. Is US security at risk? #CyberSecurity #ChinaHack #NationalSecurity #Pentagon #Microsoft #SaltTyphoon
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[Music]
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Welcome back to this story. Pentagon
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Chief Pete Hexth has confirmed the
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Pentagon is now looking into Microsoft
0:06
using Chinese engineers inside China to
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maintain the defense department's
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computer systems. Now, American
0:13
engineers reportedly were overseeing
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these Chinese engineers, but they don't
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have the expertise to do that. Joining
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us now, US Army Special Forces veteran
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Jim Hansen. Jim, great to see you again.
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What's your reaction to this? Because
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NATO chief Mark Rut has said China could
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attack Taiwan.
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China could do a lot of things. One of
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which is constantly steal our secrets.
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They're some of the best in the world at
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industrial espionage. So now you've got
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defense contractors and in this case
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Microsoft being the biggest one who are
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putting their profits ahead of our
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national security. Now, this wasn't the
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classified networks, but the thing is,
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if you get enough unclassified
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information and you analyze it and you
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run it through AI, it can tell you a lot
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about our readiness, about our training,
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about which units are deployed, and it
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puts our troops and their families at
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risk. I I can't wait to see Pete exit
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bring some pain to these guys.
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All right, this is happening, Jim. The
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Pentagon found an elite Chinese cyber
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spy group. They go by the nickname Salt
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Typhoon. They may have hacked into and
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gotten sensitive military law
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enforcement information. They hacked
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into at least one US state's National
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Guard network. We don't know the name of
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that state, but they were in there for
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nearly a year. Uh China could have
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hacked other states National Guard
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units. And this is the same cyberhacking
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Chinese group blamed for a big the
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biggest cyber espionage campaign against
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the US to date. They had hacked into at
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least eight of America's biggest
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internet and phone companies, including
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AT&T. Last year they found that they
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were hacking into the the Trump campaign
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into the Kla Harris campaign.
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Yeah, it's time to take this seriously.
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You know, they've been doing it through
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their grad students and and just through
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other forms of uh old school spying, you
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know, stealing information, but now with
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with the access you can get when the
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when the US government allows them into
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our cloud, that's insane. and and the
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idea that we're not punishing them for
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when they do things like get into a
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National Guard, you know, computer
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system. Uh this is a situation where
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President Trump needs to go ahead and
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tell his negotiators that any trade deal
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requires major restrictions against any
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kind of Chinese hacking or theft inside
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our, you know, industrial and
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intellectual property. I mean the
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basically what's the upside for a US
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company to use Chinese engineers
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overseas to maintain a Pentagon uh
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computer system
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just pure money they they can get them
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cheaper and then they hire former US
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military people they they work this
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workaround where they have a US former
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military person with a security
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clearance who knows nothing about tech
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and this Chinese hacker probably is
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giving them code that they then insert
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into our computer systems. It's insane.
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I mean, the idea that you're gonna take
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someone and you can get a clearance if
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you're a grunt or or any kind of a
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person, you know, secret enough to to be
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in this position and that saves
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Microsoft money and they were willing to
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put us all at risk in order to up their
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bottom line.
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We're hearing Microsoft is stopping
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this. We'll stay on the story. Jim
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Hansen, you are terrific. Thank you and
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thank you for your service to America.
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It's good to see you again, my friend.
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I'm Elizabeth McDonald. Thank you for
3:26
watching the evening edit.
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