Digital escorts? No, not those kinds of escorts.
A recent swirl of media reports—from ProPublica to Reuters—highlighted a letter from Senator Tom Cotton to a major DOD IT supplier, raising concerns about a reported practice of using Chinese foreign nationals to help build Department of Defense infrastructure overseas. And the twist? These foreign nationals were allegedly supported by “digital escorts”—U.S. security clearance holders tasked with facilitating the movement of code from unclassified systems into classified environments.
Yes, that’s a lot to unpack.
First, let’s acknowledge the obvious: the term digital escort is doing no one any favors. It’s not an established clearance term, and the name alone sounds like a phishing scam. But behind the buzzword is a serious concern about IT supply chain vulnerabilities, offshore coding practices, and the potential for malicious code to sneak its way into sensitive systems.
As someone who has spent years in the trenches of the cleared recruiting space, this isn’t the first time alarm bells have been rung. The idea of building software “on the low side” and transferring it to the “high side” is not new. Nor is the outsourcing of development work to foreign countries like India. What is concerning is the process—or lack thereof—governing how that code is reviewed, secured, and validated before making its way into our critical infrastructure.
Whether or not the term “digital escort” persists, the real takeaway is clear: trust is everything. Every hire matters. You can’t bolt cybersecurity onto a broken pipeline. If we’re handing over pieces of DOD infrastructure to external contractors (and we are), we better have the right guardrails in place—and that starts with personnel.
This also connects with broader trends we’ve been watching: North Korea using deepfake technology to insert IT workers into U.S. companies, adversarial nations exploiting remote work opportunities, and AI complicating vetting even further. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: this is why ClearanceJobs exists. The risk is real. The workforce needs to be cleared, vetted, and continually monitored.
So while we don’t yet know the full truth behind this story, and the investigation is still unfolding, one thing is certain: growing and nurturing the cleared talent pipeline is non-negotiable.
