Vendor giants commit to billions in cybersecurity spending and new initiatives following White House meeting
Microsoft to invest $20bn in cybersecurity over next five years
Some of the world's biggest vendors have committed to billions of dollars worth of cybersecurity spending along with a raft of new initiatives following a meeting with president Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday.
CEOs including Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Apple's Tim Cook, Amazon's Andy Jassy, IBM's Arvind Krishna and Google's Sundar Pichai were among the industry leaders in attendance to discuss efforts to boost cybersecurity.
"Recent high-profile cybersecurity incidents demonstrate that both U.S. public and private sector entities increasingly face sophisticated malicious cyber activity," the White House said in a statement.
"Cybersecurity is a national security and economic security imperative for the Biden administration and we are prioritising and elevating cybersecurity like never before."
In July, the president issued a National Security Memorandum establishing voluntary cybersecurity goals, and has now announced the launch of a new framework to act as a "guideline to public and private entities on how to build secure technology and assess the security of technology", which Microsoft, Google and IBM have all signed up to.
Here's what else the big vendors have committed to following the meeting…
Apple
Apple announced it will establish a new programme to drive continuous security improvements throughout the technology supply chain.
It will see Apple work with its suppliers to drive the mass adoption of multi-factor authentication, security training, vulnerability remediation, event logging, and incident response.
Google announced it will invest $10bn over the next five years to expand zero-trust programmes, help secure the software supply chain, and enhance open-source security.
It also announced it will help 100,000 Americans earn industry-recognised digital skills certificates aimed at securing high-paying jobs.
IBM
IBM announced it will train 150,000 people in cybersecurity skills over the next three years and will partner with more than 20 Historically Black Colleges and Universities to establish Cybersecurity Leadership Centres to boost diversity.
Microsoft
Microsoft announced it will invest $20bn over the next five years to accelerate efforts to integrate cybersecurity by design and deliver advanced security solutions.
It is also making $150m in technical services available to help federal, state, and local governments with upgrading security protection, as well as expanding partnerships with community colleges and non-profits for cybersecurity training.
Amazon
Amazon announced it will make available to the public, at no charge, the security awareness training it offers its employees.
It also announced it will make available to all Amazon Web Services account holders, again at no additional cost, a multi-factor authentication device to protect against cybersecurity threats like phishing and password theft.