Yesterday, US tech companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft promised to help bolster US cybersecurity in a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House. Respective pledges vary from company to company. They range from spending billions on cyber security infrastructure to offering supply chain aid and education.
The high-profile meeting with tech CEOs comes on the heels of major cyberattacks against US government agencies and energy infrastructures. Biden said, “The reality is, most of our critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, and the federal government can’t meet this challenge alone.”
Apple promised that it would work with its suppliers to “drive mass adoption of multi factor authentication”. Apple also said it will provide new security training, incident response, and vulnerability remediation.
On the other hand, Amazon plans to offer a multi factor authentication device to all Amazon Web Services account holders for free. Amazon will make all of the company’s employee security awareness training available to the public at free of cost.
Similarly, Google announced that it would spend more than $10 billion over the next five years to strengthen US cybersecurity and the software supply chain. Google has promised to train more than 100,000 Americans in data analytics and IT support through the company’s Career Certificate program.
In a similar fashion, Microsoft announced it would invest $20 billion in the next five years to strengthen US cybersecurity infrastructure.
The event was attended by CEOs of tech companies like Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Apple CEO Tim Cook, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. There were also representatives from other industries like energy and education.
