Google and Microsoft will jointly invest 25 billion euros in cybersecurity. Other tech companies have also made commitments to improve the digital security of devices and businesses. This comes as a result of a conversation with US President Biden.
Google will spend $10 billion over the next five years to improve security. That money will go toward expanding enterprise zero-trust policies, helping secure software in the company’s supply chain, and promoting open source security software. The company also wants to train more IT specialists in the next three years.
Microsoft also earmarks money for security. It concerns 20 billion dollars or 17 billion euros for better security of Microsoft’s own security products. Microsoft will also do that over a period of five years. The company also pledged $150 million or $127 million to help secure government agencies.
Other companies have also made commitments, but not with money. Amazon will make its internal security training available for free and will distribute free hardware tokens to all AWS end users. IBM will train 150,000 people in cybersecurity. Apple will ensure that at least 9,000 of its suppliers receive widespread training and use multi-factor authentication.
The companies do this following a conversation with US President Joe Biden. He spoke with Google and Microsoft, but also with other tech companies such as Apple and IBM. The conversation focused specifically on cybersecurity and its impact on society. Biden wanted to know from the companies what could be done to improve security for themselves and society at large.
Biden himself also came up with several initiatives to improve cybersecurity. The National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US will work with the private sector to develop a more unified security policy and use more open source software, and several schools and universities will offer courses.