Google and Microsoft five year cybersecurity investments plans 2021

In August 2021, both Google and Microsoft pledged to increase cybersecurity spending in the following five years. After a meeting with business leaders from different sectors at the White House with U.S. President Joe Biden, the companies committed to address the urgency of more cybersecurity.

Areas of investment

Areas of investment include training cybersecurity professionals and filling cybersecurity jobs. This also encompasses rolling out new cybersecurity and IT support learning programs, for example through Google ‘s Career Certificate program. In addition, the development of new industry standards and more advanced technologies and tools are being considered to help prevent cyber security incidents in the future. This may include the security improvement of technology supply chains as well as more frequent adoption of multifactor authentication.

Surging cyberattacks on companies and governmental bodies

In 2020, malicious actors utilized a ransomware attack to shut down one of the largest U.S. gasoline pipelines. Notably, this incident followed another attack targeted at the Washington, D.C., police department. The high-stakes nature of these targets, and the apparent ability of nefarious actors to shut down infrastructure and threaten public safety, emphasizes the need for not only companies but also government entities to invest in cybersecurity. For this reason, Microsoft pledged to invest 150 million U.S. dollars specifically to help government agencies improve security systems.