Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella Plan to Visit White House

Rebecca Kern, Mark Gurman and Spencer Soper (Bloomberg) -- 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.

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.

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.