The Chinese government has warned against using cyber security issues to defame the country, following the hacker attacks on Microsoft software. Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in Beijing on Wednesday that he was not aware of the exact circumstances of the attacks.

Microsoft says the Chinese threat actors Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon, and Storm-2603 have been exploiting the ToolShell zero-days.

Microsoft confirmed on Friday that it will no longer allow China-based engineers to access Pentagon cloud systems after concerns were raised that such actions threatened United States national security.

Technicians from China took care of the Department of Defense's cloud on behalf of Microsoft. After this came to light, the provider had to rebuild.

A report from ProPublica has claimed Microsoft is using these engineers to maintain the Department of Defense’s computer systems, with ‘minimal supervision by US personnel’.