President Joe Biden is meeting with top executives from some of the nation's leading technology companies and financial institutions on Wednesday as the White House urges the private sector to help strengthen cybersecurity defenses against increasingly sophisticated attacks.
The summit comes during a relentless spate of ransomware attacks that have targeted critical infrastructure, in some cases with attackers receiving multimillion-dollar payouts from major corporations, as well as other illegal cyber operations that US officials have claimed. Linked to foreign hackers.
In public remarks before the private meeting began, Biden called cyber security the U.S. referred to as the "main national security challenge".
"The reality is that most of our critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, and the federal government alone cannot meet this challenge," Biden said. "I invite you all here today because you have the power, capability and responsibility, I believe, to raise the bar on cyber security."
Although ransomware is a focus of Wednesday's gathering, the purpose of the meeting is broad and focused on identifying the "root causes of malicious cyber activity" and ways to help strengthen private sector cybersecurity, a senior administration official said. The official briefed reporters. Condition of anonymity.
The guest list for Wednesday's meeting includes Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jesse and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. Also on the list are IBM, Microsoft and leaders in automated data processing. In addition to Biden, several cabinet secretaries and national security officials are representing the administration.
The meeting is taking place as Biden's national security team is consumed by the withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation of Americans and Afghan civilians. The fact that the meeting remained on the calendar underscores how the administration treats cyber security as a key agenda item, with a senior administration official describing Wednesday's incident as a "call to action".
Financial industry executives are also expected, including the CEOs of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, as well as representatives from the energy, education and insurance sectors.
The wide cross-section of participants underscores how cyber attacks have cut across almost all areas of commerce. For example, in May, hackers affiliated with a Russia-based cyber gang carried out a ransomware attack on a major fuel pipeline in the US, forcing the company to temporarily halt operations. Weeks later, the world's largest meat processor, JBS SA, was attacked by a different hacking group.
In both cases, the companies paid ransoms of several million dollars in an attempt to get them back online.
Biden pointed to a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in which he said he had made clear his expectation that Russia would take steps to rein in ransomware gangs because "they know where they are and they Who are they?"