Google, Microsoft pledge billions in cybersecurity investments

Some of the country’s leading technology companies have committed to investing billions of dollars to strengthen cybersecurity defences and to train skilled workers, the White House has announced, following President Joe Biden’s private meeting with top executives.

The gathering was held Wednesday during a relentless stretch of ransomware attacks that have targeted critical infrastructure, in some cases with the attackers extorting multimillion-dollar payments from major corporations, as well as other illicit cyber operations that US authorities have linked to foreign hackers.

The Biden administration has been urging the private sector to do its part to strengthen cybersecurity defences against those increasingly sophisticated attacks.