Status: 08/26/2021 9:28 a.m.
At a meeting in the White House, the big US tech companies pledged to invest billions of dollars in cybersecurity. The focus is on protecting sensitive infrastructure.
Tech companies like Google and Microsoft want to invest billions in the fight against cybercrime, according to the White House. Several companies made commitments and initiatives during a meeting with US President Joe Biden. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy attended the meeting.
“The reality is that most of our critical infrastructures are operated by the private sector, and the government cannot tackle this challenge alone,” Biden said before the consultations with the chiefs of the technology companies.
Billions of dollars are flowing
Accordingly, Apple wants to set up a new program to continuously improve security in the entire technology supply chain. The group wants to work together with its suppliers and promote security training and the elimination of weak points.
Microsoft intends to invest US $ 20 billion over the next five years, around 17 billion euros, for example, to be able to provide advanced security solutions more quickly.
According to the US government, Google plans to invest more than ten billion dollars in certain cybersecurity programs over the next five years and also help 100,000 Americans acquire industry-recognized certificates for digital skills.
Amazon therefore announced that the security training courses that the company offers its employees will also be available to the public free of charge. Other companies such as Microsoft and IBM are also said to have made commitments.
Lack of staff in the security industry
Cybersecurity is a national and economic security imperative for the government, the White House said. Cybersecurity is accorded greater importance “than ever before”.
However, they want to focus on the permanent causes of the malicious cyber activities. To this end, the security of the technology and the operational processes must be improved. In addition, active measures would have to be taken against the shortage of staff in the security industry. 500,000 positions are vacant there.
What is ransomware?
Ransomware is malware that restricts or prevents victims’ access to data and systems, for example by encrypting all hard drives. The attackers demand a ransom for the decryption, the English term for this is “ransom”.
Natural gas pipelines are to be included in an initiative on cybersecurity that primarily focuses on infrastructure. In the US, ransomware attacks on the energy infrastructure recently made headlines, including one of the most important gasoline pipelines in the US. Cyber hacking groups based in Russia are suspected to be the main reason for these attacks.