Most voters worried about Microsoft’s ties to government after breaches: survey

A majority of likely U.S. voters said they are concerned about federal employees using Microsoft and that the company should stop receiving hefty government contracts following security breaches by foreign entities, according to a poll. research shared exclusively Thursday with The Hill.

The survey on trust in Microsoft and the government’s use of the tech giant’s tools was conducted on Wednesday, the day before a House hearing on Microsoft’s breaches, with testimony from the company’s vice president and president, Brad Smith.

Overall, 66% of likely US voters surveyed said they had a favorable view of Microsoft. But 68 percent of respondents said they were not aware of hacks into Microsoft’s internal servers by Chinese and Russian state actors last year.

When asked whether Microsoft should continue to receive “billions of dollars in federal cybersecurity contracts” given news of the breaches, 60% said no.

An even larger majority – 84% – of likely voters said in the survey that they are concerned that “90% of federal employees use Microsoft email accounts” in the wake of foreign hackers.

The poll interviewed 613 likely general election voters on Wednesday via an internet panel. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.

A report released in April of the Cybersecurity Review Board (CSRB) said that a “cascade of security flaws at Microsoft” allowed a security breach to occur by a Chinese-backed actor. The breach compromised the emails of organizations and individuals, including US government officials working on national security issues, such as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

In April, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed another breach at Microsoft: Russian-linked hackers exploited correspondence between federal agencies and Microsoft.

During Thursday’s hearing, Smith will testify that Microsoft “accepts responsibility for each of the issues cited in the CSRB report,” according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “No mistakes or hesitations. And without any sense of defense. But rather with a full commitment to address all recommendations and use this report as an opportunity and foundation to strengthen our cybersecurity protection at all levels.”

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