Over at LinkedIn, the DoD’s Acquisition Program Manager, Prescott Paulin, posted a damning video showing Microsoft referred him to a Chinese call center when he had problems accessing his “defense-related accounts after hours.”
In the video, Paulin speaks with a Chinese operator who informs him that, yes, he’s been routed to a call center in that country.
Now let’s go back and remember how Microsoft’s Richard Wakeman invented 15 minutes of fame for himself by shilling for CMMC, telling small defense industry companies they would need to mortgage their grandmother’s homes to pay for CMMC assessments. Then, about ten minutes later, Wakeman’s own Azure department was hacked by China because you can’t make this stuff up. Wakeman is still milking those CMMC events for fame, though, because — let’s face it — he’s not going to be invited to San Diego Comicon any time soon, so he might as well take what’s given to him.
Microsoft has made a lot of noise about cybersecurity for other people, but can’t get its own house in order. The DoD isn’t much better, and Paulin should be telling his bosses to cut their losses on CMMC before they get the entire defense industrial base hacked and/or bankrupted.
Clicking the Paulin video is worth it, however, because it’s just really, really bad. People should be fired for this, but it’s Microsoft, so they will probably promote the idiot who hired the Chinese call center to handle DoD and defense industry accounts.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 30 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
