U.S. President Joe Biden comments on the response and the coronavirus vaccination program (COVID-19) during a speech in the East Room of the White House in Washington on August 18, 2021.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
President Joe Biden will meet on Wednesday with top executives from several of the largest companies in technology, financial services, insurance, energy and education to discuss how to combat cybersecurity threats.
The event comes after the United States experienced several major cyber attacks that have added an urgency to the public and private sectors to contain these threats. These incidents include the attack on the SolarWinds software firm that affected several government agencies and the Colonial Pipeline hack. The latter caused a gas shortage in some parts of the country.
Biden plans to meet with CEOs of Amazon, Apple, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Travelers, PG&E, Girls Who Code and more to discuss ways to improve U.S. cybersecurity, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday. the administration. Members of Biden’s cabinet and national security team will also join the meeting before leading break-up discussions with executives from various sectors.
One of the three kick-off sessions will include leaders in financial, energy and water services in a debate on “Critical Infrastructure Resilience”. The talks will be led by National Security Department Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
A second will include technology and insurance leaders on “Building Sustainable Cybersecurity,” chaired by Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo and small business administrator Isabel Guzman.
The third debate will be held among educational leaders on “Cybersecurity Workforce,” led by national cybersecurity director Chris Inglis.
In the call with journalists, the senior administration official said that from Wednesday’s event concrete steps would be taken to strengthen cybersecurity practices. The official stressed that the goal was to address the “root causes” of the attacks, such as vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure and 500,000 cybersecurity jobs in the United States.
The U.S. needs to move to a system where cybersecurity is incorporated into all technology, the official said, suggesting that insurance providers could play a role in encouraging companies to follow good cybersecurity practices. .
The Biden administration has taken several actions to address the growing threat of cybersecurity. In May, Biden signed an executive order to strengthen the security of government software, instruct IT service providers to report attacks that could affect U.S. networks, and streamline information exchange. He later issued a note directing federal agencies to take steps to improve the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure.
Here is the complete list of CEOs participating in Wednesday’s events, by sector:
Technique
Financial services
Energy and water
Insurance
- Coalition CEO Joshua Motta
- Vishaal Hariprasad, CEO of Resilience
- Alan Schnitzer, CEO of Travelers
- Greg Hendrick, CEO of Vantage Group Holdings
Education
- Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi
- Tarika Barrett, CEO of Girls Who Code
- Dra. Carmen Walters, president of Tougaloo School
- Rector of the University of Texas System, JB Milliken
- Dr. Kathi Hiyane-Brown, president of Whatcom Community College
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SEE: How the huge SolarWinds hack fell