Top Tech CEOs To Meet With Biden To Discuss Cyber Threats

The chief executive officers of several major tech companies are scheduled to attend a meeting with President Joe Biden to discuss cybersecurity this week, Bloomberg reported.

Apple’s Tim Cook and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella will meet with Biden on Wednesday to discuss the private sector’s response to cybersecurity threats, several sources familiar with the meeting told Bloomberg. Amazon’s Andy Jassy will also attend, people familiar with the meeting told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The meeting may focus on cyber threats to supply chains, banking, energy, and water facilities, a senior official told Bloomberg. Chief executives of Google, IBM, JP Morgan, and Southern Co. also received invitations to the meeting, Bloomberg reported.

This meeting comes as the White House looks more to the private sector to address cyber threats after a string of ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure this year.

Biden issued a national security memorandum in July establishing a partnership with private, critical infrastructure companies to meet baseline cybersecurity goals. The partnership will focus on improving the companies’ cyber threat detection and defense systems.

The Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security that deals with cyber threats, announced the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) earlier this month. The JCDC is a partnership between the agency and private tech companies such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft designed to develop cyber defense plans and plan coordinated responses to cyber threats.

The Biden administration prioritized cybersecurity in response to several ransomware attacks, issuing an executive order in May following a hack that shut down Colonial Pipeline. Hackers targeted information technology company Kaseya last month in an attack infecting as many as 1,500 businesses, while they forced meat processor JBS to pay hackers an $11 million ransom after shutting down down the company’s operating systems.

Microsoft itself was the victim of a cyber attack in March when its Exchange email service was breached by hackers allegedly sponsored by China.

Apple and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.