America has a huge cybersecurity skills gap and tech giants are spending billions to fill it

American tech giants have announced that they are investing billions of dollars to bolster their cybersecurity defenses and anti-piracy training programs in the United States.

This comes after the White House asked major technology companies, and major infrastructure companies operating in the country, to do more to confront cyber security threats, in a meeting that brought together the heads of these companies with President Joe Biden and members of his cabinet recently.

The United States was subjected to a series of serious attacks that targeted its infrastructure and the most prominent companies operating in it, the most important of these major attacks being the massive Solarwinds hack, the Kaseya attack, ransomware, and the closure of the Colonial oil pipeline Colonial Group caused by a cyber attack.

These attacks have seriously affected the United States of America, seriously affecting the country's food and fuel supplies.

Huge gap

These attacks clearly indicated that there is a huge gap in cybersecurity skills in America.

According to data published by the “CyberSeek” platform recently, there are currently approximately 500,000 vacant cybersecurity jobs, and no one is occupying them throughout the United States.

"The reality is that most of our critical infrastructure is privately owned and operated, and the federal government cannot meet this challenge alone," Biden said at the meeting.

The US federal government cannot face the cybersecurity challenge alone (communication sites)

The list of presidents and CEOs Biden met with included: Andy Gacy, CEO of Amazon, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, and Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM.

Billions of investment pledges

The country's major technology companies have pledged to invest billions of dollars to strengthen cybersecurity defenses and train workers in this vital field, in order to assist the United States in its global war against cyberattacks.

Microsoft said it will invest $20 billion over the next five years, a fourfold increase from the current situation, to accelerate and enhance its work in the field of cybersecurity, and will provide $150 million in technical services to help federal, state and local institutions to help maintain and modernize their security systems. First, according to what the "Wionews" platform (wionews) reported in a recent report.

Google said it would invest more than $10 billion over the next five years to expand "zero-trust programs," help secure the software supply chain, and enhance open source security.

The search and advertising giant also pledged to train 100,000 Americans in areas such as IT support and data analysis, and to learn needed skills including data privacy and security.

In this context, Kent Walker, head of global affairs at Google, told TechCrunch, “Strong cybersecurity ultimately depends on having people who are able and qualified to implement it, and that includes those with digital skills who are able to design And implement cybersecurity solutions, in addition to promoting awareness of cybersecurity risks and protocols among the general population, and from here we focus on training and rehabilitation.”

Apple pledged to work with more than 9,000 of its suppliers in the United States to drive “mass adoption” for multi-factor authentication and security training, as well as pledge to continuously develop security software throughout its supply chain.

For its part, Amazon said that it will provide training in cybersecurity programs to the public and anyone who wants it, and will provide all its customers with multi-factor authentication devices.

While IBM said it will train more than 150,000 people in cybersecurity skills over the next five years.

This is happening as the US Congress considers legislation related to data breach laws and laws regulating the cyber-risk insurance industry, which have historically been seen as two of the most important areas in the fight against electronic piracy.

There are many skeptics about the credibility of the big tech companies in delivering on the promises they made (Reuters)

Strong commitment... but

This strong commitment by tech giants to fight piracy and enhance cybersecurity methods and tools has been welcomed by many inside and outside the United States, which sets a "strong precedent," Nominet Cyber ​​General Manager David Kroll told TechCrunch exclusively.

But there are many skeptics about the credibility of the big tech companies in delivering on their promises, with some veteran IT experts pointing out that many of the cybersecurity job vacancies the United States is looking to fill lack competitive salaries, and workers receive few benefits and incentives. Compared to other technical jobs.

Khalilah Scott, founder of TechSecChix, a foundation that supports women in the tech world, tweeted: “They say there are 500,000 jobs open in cybersecurity, well, there are over 500,000 people in America looking for Work, why not train and qualify them to work, in this way we will kill two birds with one stone, if they are really serious.”

The question remains hanging in the drawing of the answer to the technology giants, and we will see.