Yesterday we reported that there's been a dramatic increase in ransomware attacks globally during first half of 2021 have been driven by triple extortion technique, and it's set to expand further, according to an August 03 report by ComputerWeekly. The report noted that the frequency of ransomware attacks has increased dramatically over the past year, with 93% more carried out in the first half of 2021 than the same period last year.

To help combat this hit on the US economy, CEOs from Apple, Microsoft and other major US companies met with President Biden at the White House today to discuss efforts by private companies to improve cybersecurity.

As the CEO's filed into the White House, IBMs Chair and CEO Dr. Arvind Krishna told CNBC that cybersecurity was the "issue of the decade."

First Commitments made by U.S. Firms

Apple committed to creating a program focused on supply chain security improvements. The program will include multi-factor authentication adoption, security training and incident response. 

Google committed to investing more than $10 billion over five years to strengthen cybersecurity and pledged to train 100,000 Americans in technical fields like IT support and data analytics through its Career Certificate program. Google’s financial commitment will be used to strengthen the software supply chain and open source security, among other things.

Microsoft committed $20 billion over five years to deliver more advanced security tools, CEO Satya Nadella tweeted after the meeting. He added that Microsoft would invest $150 million to help government agencies upgrade their security systems and expand cybersecurity training partnerships.

IBM committed to training more than 150,000 people in cybersecurity skills in three years, while partnering with Historically Black Colleges & Universities to help diversify the workforce. The company also announced a new data storage solution for critical infrastructure companies and said it’s working to create safe encryption methods for quantum computing.

Of course it's highly unlikely that they, along with their counterparts, will be making their secret projects public anytime soon.