Tech Company CEOs Plan to Visit White House to Talk Cyber (2)

The chief executive officers of Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. plan to attend a White House meeting with President Joe Biden this week to discuss efforts by private companies to improve cybersecurity following a dramatic uptick in ransomware and online attacks over the past year.

Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon’s Andy Jassy plan to attend the event scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, according to people familiar with the matter.

Tim Cook and Satya Nadella

Photographers: David Paul Morris; Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

The executives could discuss efforts undertaken by critical infrastructure entities, including those in the banking, energy and water utility sectors, to improve cybersecurity and collaborations with the government. The tech executives are likely to discuss how software can drive better security in the supply chain, according to a senior official familiar with the event.

The chief executives of companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, International Business Machines Corp., Southern Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have also been invited, the senior official said.

Andy Jassy

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Southern Co. CEO Tom Fanning plans to attend, according to the official. The company declined to comment.

Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM and JPMorgan also declined to comment.

The meeting follows massive cyber and ransomware attacks on critical energy infrastructure, including that of Colonial Pipeline Co., as well as software and cloud providers such as Microsoft and SolarWinds Corp., which have largely been perpetrated by cyber groups based in Russia and China.

(Updates with plans by Amazon’s Jassy to attend.)

--With assistance from Mark Bergen.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Rebecca Kern in Washington at rkern21@bloomberg.net;
Mark Gurman in Los Angeles at mgurman1@bloomberg.net;
Spencer Soper in Seattle at ssoper@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Zachary Sherwood at zsherwood@bloomberg.net

Nick Turner

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