Big Tech teams up with U.S. authority against ransomware
U.S. Department of Homeland Security revealed on Thursday plans to foster Big Tech giants’ support to strengthen cybersecurity measures, preceding a sequence of high-profile attacks on security infrastructure.
In its latest endeavor to secure its infrastructure, U.S. authorities are incorporating Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to reinforce the state’s cybersecurity.
Join Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) is the U.S. government’s latest initiative that will pave the way to a higher security development and decrease cyber intrusions effects.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the plan will mostly emphasis on fighting and blocking ransomware and create a framework to address cyberattacks that directly impacts cloud service providers. By doing so, this will highly enhance information distribution between the private sector and authorities.
“The JCDC presents an exciting and important opportunity for this agency and our partners – the creation of a unique planning capability to be proactive vice reactive in our collective approach to dealing with the most serious cyber threats to our nation,” said Jeff Easterly, director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in a statement.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration secured a $20 billion plan to enforce the country’s infrastructure against cyberattacks. The plan was developed after multiple federal agencies were victimized by the SolarWinds hack revealed last year.
The administration’s investment is a segment of a $2 trillion American Jobs Plan that will ultimately enhance the nation’s cyber infrastructure.
More tech firms are partaking in the JCDC initiative alongside various governmental agencies. Some of these big names include AT&T, CrowdStrike, FireEye, Lumen, Palo Alto Networks, and Verizon.
“In order to bolster our nation’s cyber defenses, it’s essential that the public and private sectors work together to defend against evolving threats and show up modern IT capabilities that will protect our federal, state and local governments,” Phil Venables, Google Cloud’s chief information security officer addressed the topic in an emailed statement.
Google exhibited strong willingness to work side by side with U.S. authorities under the JCDC and offered its security resources to develop a fierce and persistent cyber defense posture.
As for the other Big Tech giants, Microsoft and Amazon did not release any statement concerning the initiative as of yet.