Andy Jassy (L), CEO of Amazon, Tim Cook (C), CEO of Apple and Satya Nadell, CEO of Microsoft.
Getty Images (L) | Reuters (CR)
According to reports, chief executives of several major companies such as Amazon, Apple and Microsoft will meet with President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday to talk about cybersecurity.
CNBC has confirmed that it will be attended by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, a detail first reported by Reuters. Bloomberg said Monday Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will also attend.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna also plans to attend the meeting, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC. IBM declined to comment.
An Apple spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Microsoft spokesman deferred comments to the White House, which declined to comment on the record.
The meeting comes when the Biden administration has faced the growing threat of cyber attacks. Microsoft was one of those affected by the SolarWinds hacker that affected several government agencies, Reuters reported last year. This was just one of several recent breaches that have illuminated the pressing cybersecurity issues. Others include Colonial Pipeline hacking and ransomware attacks that have affected municipalities and health systems.
The White House first announced the cybersecurity meeting on Wednesday in July, which press secretary Jen Psaki described as “a meeting with private sector leaders to discuss how we work together to collectively improve the country’s cybersecurity.” .
According to Bloomberg, the CEO of Google was also invited to the meeting. A Google spokesman postponed the comment to the White House.
Open communication with the private sector can be particularly important in dealing with cyberattacks. Following the hacking of SolarWinds, Microsoft President Brad Smith told lawmakers that the only reason the company knew the scope of the attack was because computer security firm FireEye revealed a sophisticated attack on it. their own systems.
Since then, Mr. Mark Warner, D-Va., Marco Rubio, R-Fla. And Susan Collins, R-Maine, has introduced a bill that would require private sector companies to work with the government or provide critical infrastructure services. to spread cyberattacks to their systems. It would also protect these companies from some possible negative impacts of reporting the breach, such as shareholders suing them using the information disclosed as evidence.
-Jordan Novet and Kif Leswing of CNBC contributed to this report.
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SEE: How the huge SolarWinds hack fell