Microsoft pledges $20 bn, Google commits $10 bn in 5 years for US cyber security; Here's why

Microsoft said it would invest $20 billion in the next five years, while Amazon planned to offer a multi-factor authentication device to all Amazon Web Services (AWS) account holders for free.

Google, which has announced to invest $10 billion over the next five years to strengthen cybersecurity in the US, said that the governments and businesses are at a watershed moment in addressing cybersecurity.

The company has also pledged, through the Google Career Certificate programme, to train 100,000 Americans in fields like IT support and data analytics, learning in-demand skills including data privacy and security.

"Cyber attacks are increasingly endangering valuable data and critical infrastructure. While we welcome increased measures to reinforce cybersecurity, governments and companies are both facing key challenges," said Kent Walker, SVP of Global Affairs at Google.

"First, organisations continue to depend on vulnerable legacy infrastructure and software, rather than adopting modern IT and security practices. Too many governments still rely on legacy vendor contracts that limit competition and choice, inflate costs, and create privacy and security risks," he elaborated.

Second, nation-state actors, cybercriminals and other malicious actors continue to target weaknesses in software supply chains and many vendors don't have the tools or expertise to stop them. "Third, countries simply don't have enough people trained to anticipate and deal with these threats," Walker noted.

Tech giants like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon on Wednesday promised US President Joe Biden to help him improve cybersecurity infrastructure in the wake of several high-profile hacking cases against government agencies and energy infrastructure.

Walker said that for the past two decades, Google has made security the cornerstone of our product strategy.

"We've published over 160 academic research papers on computer security, privacy, and abuse prevention, and we warn other software companies of weaknesses in their systems," he noted.

The cybersecurity meeting with Biden came in the wake of several incidents like the massive Solarwinds hack, the Kaseya ransomware attack and the Colonial Pipeline shutdown resulting from a cyber-attack.