Cybersecurity – First Priority

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Cybersecurity is “the core national security challenge we are facing,” US President Biden told executives from major technology, financial and energy companies in a summit on national cybersecurity,

Top tech executives, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon.com’s Andy Jassy, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai attended the White House meeting, among others.  

President Biden called on the technology leaders to do more to respond to cybersecurity threats. “The reality is most of our critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, and the federal government can’t meet this challenge alone. You have the power, capacity and responsibility, I believe, to raise the bar on cybersecurity. Ultimately we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

These challenges are compounded, Biden added, by the shortage of cybersecurity professionals. The White House estimates that roughly half a million cybersecurity jobs remain open, amid an onslaught of cyberattacks.

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The meeting was part of a broader Biden administration effort to prioritize cyberattacks as a national security and economic threat. The administration announced that it would work with industry to develop new guidelines to help companies and government agencies build secure technology and assess the security of existing technology. Microsoft and Google, as well as insurance providers, committed to participate in this initiative, according to a White House news release.

“We are in a cyberwar,” said Hadi Partovi, the CEO of the education nonprofit Code.org. “Nobody’s declared war, but attacks are happening every day. I felt optimistic that the set of folks who came together have a commitment to work together, whether it’s with government or their competitors.”

According to washingtonpost.com, the summit was largely a signal from the president to the private sector that he cares about cybersecurity issues. It also signifies the recent onslaught of hacks will probably be addressed in the future with legislation and executive orders.