Majority of voters concerned with Microsoft ties to government after breaches: Poll

The 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 after security breaches by foreign entities, according to a poll exclusively shared Thursday with The Hill.

The poll about trust in Microsoft and the government’s use of the tech giant’s tools was conducted Wednesday, one day ahead of a House hearing about Microsoft’s breaches featuring testimony from the company’s Vice Chair and President Brad Smith.

Overall, 66 percent of polled likely U.S. voters said they have 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 in the last year.

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

An even larger majority — 84 percent — of the likely voters said in the survey they are concerned that “90 percent of federal employees use Microsoft email accounts” following the foreign hacks.

The poll surveyed 613 likely general election voters Wednesday by internet panel. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.

A report released in April by the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) said a “cascade of security failures at Microsoft” allowed a security breach by a China-backed actor to occur. The breach compromised the emails of organizations and individuals, including U.S. government representatives working on national security matters, such as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

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

During Thursday’s hearing, Smith will testify that Microsoft “accepts responsibility for each and every one of the issues cited in the CSRB’s report,” according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “Without equivocation or hesitation. And without any sense of defensiveness. But rather with a complete commitment to address every recommendation and use this report as an opportunity and foundation to strengthen our cybersecurity protection across the board.”