WASHINGTON, Aug 26 — The US government on Wednesday said it would work with industry to hammer out new guidelines to improve the security of the technology supply chain, as President Joe Biden appealed to private sector executives to “raise the bar on cybersecurity.”
After the meeting, the White House said the National Institute of Standards and Technology would work with industry and other partners on new guidelines for building secure technology and assessing the security of technology, including open source software. “We have a lot of work to do,” Biden said, citing both ransomware attacks and his push to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold Russian-based cyber gangs responsible, and the need to fill nearly half a million public and private cybersecurity jobs.
Microsoft said it will invest US$20 billion over five years, a four-fold increase from current rates, to speed up its cyber security work, and make available US$150 million in technical services to help federal, state and local governments to help keep their security systems up to date. Vishaal Hariprasad, CEO of Resilience Cyber Insurance Solutions, told Reuters his company would work with the government on setting clear standards for cybersecurity, and would require policy holders to meet those standards.