Meet Joe Biden, Big US Tech Company Sets Up Ransomware Fight Fund

JAKARTA - The US government said Wednesday it will work with industry to finalize new guidelines to improve technology supply chain security. US President Joe Biden also called on private sector executives to "raise cybersecurity standards."

At a meeting at the White House on Aug. 25, with Biden and members of his Cabinet, executives from Big Tech, financial industry and infrastructure firms said they would do more about the growing threat of cyber attacks on the US economy.

"The federal government cannot face this challenge alone," Biden told executives in the East Room. “You have the power, capacity and responsibility, I believe, to raise the bar for cybersecurity.”

Following the meeting, the White House said the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) would work with industry and other partners on new guidelines for building secure technologies and assessing the security of technologies, including open source software.

Microsoft, Google, Travelers, and the Coalition, a cyber insurance provider, among others, are committed to participating in the new NIST-led initiative.

Cybersecurity has been high on the Biden administration's agenda after a series of high-profile attacks on network management firm SolarWinds Corp, Colonial Pipeline, meat processing firm JBS and software firm Kaseya. The attacks hurt the United States far beyond the companies that were hacked, affecting fuel and food supplies.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Biden said, citing the ransomware attack and his push to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold Russia-based cyber gangs accountable, and the need to fill nearly half a million public and private cybersecurity jobs. .

The guest list included Amazon.com Inc CEO Andy Jassy, ​​Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google parent Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai and IBM Chief Executive Arvind Krisna.

After the meeting, Amazon said it would make its cybersecurity training available to the public free of charge. They will also provide multi-factor authentication tools to some cloud computing customers, starting in October.

Microsoft said it would invest $20 billion over five years, a quadruple increase from current rates, to accelerate its cybersecurity work, and provide $150 million in technical services to help federal, state, and local governments help keep systems secure. they are up to date.

IBM said it will train more than 150,000 people in cybersecurity skills over three years and will partner with black colleges and universities to create a more diverse cyber workforce.

Google said it had dedicated $10 billion to cybersecurity over the next five years, but it wasn't immediately clear what if any of those numbers represented new spending. It also said it would help 100,000 Americans obtain industry-recognized digital skills certificates that could lead to high-paying jobs.

Vishaal Hariprasad, CEO of Resilience Cyber ​​Insurance Solutions, told Reuters his company would work closely with the government to establish clear cybersecurity standards, and would require policyholders to meet those standards.

"So if a company is willing to comply with the minimum standards, they will have insurance, and if they don't, they have to identify those gaps so they can hit that baseline," he said.

"It's not just about making our company more secure, but also making sure that we do something to tackle the bad guys," Hariprasad added.

Congress is considering legislation on data breach notification laws and cybersecurity insurance industry regulations, which have historically been viewed as the two most important policy areas in this area.

Energy utility company executives Southern Co and JPMorgan Chase & Co also attended the event.

The event featured top cybersecurity officials from the Biden administration, including Director of National Cybersecurity Chris Inglis and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.