At Wednesday's White House meeting with President Joe Biden, business leaders from a variety of sectors including tech and insurance pledged billions to increase cybersecurity efforts.
This meeting is taking place in the wake several high-profile cyberattacks on government software contractor SolarWinds as well as on Colonial Pipeline oil pipeline, which have added urgency to security issues.
These commitments include working towards new industry standards, supplying other businesses stronger security tools, and training workers to fill approximately 500,000 U.S. cybersecurity job openings. Biden signed an executive order that requires all U.S. agencies use two-factor authentication to log in, which can help protect against cyberattacks.
Apple will create a program to improve security across their technology supply chain, according to the White House. This program will work with suppliers to implement multifactor authentication and security training.
Google stated it will invest more than $10B over five years in cybersecurity strengthening and promised to train 100,000 Americans through its Career Certificate program in technical fields like IT support and data analysis. Google's financial commitment will help to strengthen software supply chains and open-source security.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, tweeted that the company had committed $20 billion to provide more advanced security tools over five years. He stated that Microsoft would invest $150million to assist government agencies in upgrading their security systems and expanding cybersecurity training partnerships. Since 2015, Microsoft has spent $1B per year on cybersecurity.
IBM claimed it will train more than 150,000 people with cybersecurity skills within three years. It also partnered with historically Black colleges to diversify its workforce. IBM also announced a new storage solution for critical infrastructure firms and stated that it is working to develop safe encryption methods for quantum computing.
CNBC was told by Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, that cybersecurity is "the topic of the decade". He expressed his hope for more coordination between the private and public sectors at the meeting and stated that IBM would help skilled workers in this space.
Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud computing division, will offer account holders multifactor authentication devices for free to help protect their data. It will also offer security awareness training to individuals and organizations.
A spokesperson for TIAA, a financial services company, pointed out several ongoing initiatives that it has taken to train more cybersecurity professionals. Among them is a partnership with New York University, which allows TIAA associates pursue a fully-reimbursed master's degree on cybersecurity.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, described the meeting as "a very productive and collaborative discussion" upon his departure from the White House.
He said, "Hopefully we will continue to follow-up and do a great job to protect our nation from a really complicated problem."
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, stated that the event brought together "the right group of people to have a great discussion."
CNBC heard from two water company executives who left the meeting that the discussions emphasized cooperation across all sectors. Walter Lynch, American Water CEO, stated that there was a "understanding" that all sectors must work together to tackle cyberthreats facing the nation.
This report was contributed by Samantha Subin and Mary Catherine Wellons of CNBC.
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