Technology majors such as have committed to make huge investment in cyber security business when their CEOs met US President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
The U.S. government said it would work with industry to hammer out new guidelines to improve the security of the technology supply chain, as President Joe Biden appealed to private sector executives to “raise the bar on cybersecurity.”
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 technology and assessing the security of technology, including open source software.
Microsoft, Google, Travelers, and Coalition, a cyber insurance provider, among others, committed to participating in the new NIST-led initiative.
The guest list included Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google’s parent Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna.
Amazon said it would make its cybersecurity training available to the public for free, and it would give multi-factor authentication devices to some cloud computing customers, starting in October.
Microsoft said it will invest $20 billion over five years, a four-fold increase from current rates, to speed up its cyber security work, and make available $150 million in technical services to help federal, state and local governments to help keep their security systems up to date.
IBM said it will train more than 150,000 people in cybersecurity skills over three years and will partner with historically black colleges and universities to create a more diverse cyber workforce.
Google said it was devoting $10 billion to cybersecurity over the next five years, but it was not immediately clear what if any of the figure represented new spending. It also said it would help 100,000 Americans earn 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 with the government on setting clear standards for cybersecurity, and would require policy holders to meet those standards.
The event featured top cybersecurity officials from the Biden administration, including National Cybersecurity Director Chris Inglis and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
