Apple CEO Tim Cook and current Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella may visit the White House soon. They will be meeting President Joe Biden to discuss ways tech companies can improve cybersecurity, and prevent online attacks.
Bloomberg reported the news on Monday. The report also states that top executives from companies like Google, Amazon and IBM were invited to the same meeting as Biden.
Details about the event, which will be held behind closed doors, are not known. According to sources familiar with the matter, President Biden would like to discuss the efforts of companies to improve the online security framework across multiple segments. This includes banking, energy and water utilities sectors.
The U.S. government wants to collaborate with big tech companies in order to find new ways of developing software that will improve supply chain security. This is in response to multiple hacker attacks against critical infrastructure that were launched by Russian and Chinese groups.
This meeting comes after massive cyber- and ransomware attack on critical energy infrastructure including Colonial Pipeline Co. and software and cloud providers like Microsoft and SolarWinds Corp. These attacks have largely been perpetrated in part by cyber groups based out of Russia and China.
Tim Cook was a former board member of President Donald Trump’s US government. Earlier this year, Cook wrote a letter to President Biden praising his swift action on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
It is unknown if the executives mentioned will be present at the event. Sources informed Bloomberg the meeting was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.