A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration
The White House will meet with executives from major tech companies, including Alphabet-owned Google (GOOGL.O), Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Amazon.com Inc, , to discuss software security after the United States have suffered several major cyber attacks last year.
In December, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan sent a letter to CEOs of tech companies after a security vulnerability was discovered in open source software called Log4j that organizations around the world are using. to save data in their applications.
In the letter, Sullivan noted that this open source software is widely used and maintained by volunteers and is a “major national security problem.”
Thursday’s meeting, which will be hosted by the Deputy National Security Advisor for Information Technology and Emerging Technologies. discuss concerns about the security of open source software and how it can be improved, the White House said in a statement.
Other top tech companies in attendance at the meeting will include IBM (IBM.N), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O) which owns Facebook and Oracle Corp (ORCL.N). Government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and the Commerce Department, will also be in attendance.
Cybersecurity has been a top priority for the Biden administration after several major cyberattacks last year, which exposed thousands of records held by companies and government agencies to hackers.
One hack, which the U.S. government has said was likely orchestrated by Russia, breached software made by SolarWinds (SWI.N) and gave hackers access to thousands of companies and government offices that used its products. The hackers got access to emails at the U.S. Treasury, Justice and Commerce departments, and other agencies.
