The U.S. recruits The Avengers of cybersecurity

Future. The U.S. federal government has convened a new public-private partnership called the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative to help protect against ransomware attacks and other threats to cybersecurity. The collaboration may show the level of resources that are needed to fight against these unprecedented attacks, especially on the eve of America undergoing the biggest infrastructure revolution in 70 years.

Big Tech, assemble!
After a raft of ransomware attacks on American companies and government agencies, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) has had enough.

• It has created the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, which is made up of top tech companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, and telcos like AT&T and Verizon.
• The focus of the collaborative is to combat against ransomware and cyberattacks on cloud-computing services

The director of CISA, Jen Easterly, said that the ultimate goal of this new team-up is to create a more robust public-private partnership in the creation of defense planning and information sharing.

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The U.S. has been hard hit by ransomware attacks over the past year, including the infamous Solar Winds hack, the attack on Colonial Pipeline, and harassment on several hospitals. The White House has stepped up its investment (and rhetoric) to combat these attacks, including taking Russia and China — a hotbed for hackers — to task.

Also, the new infrastructure bill making its way through the Senate includes a major funding boost for CISA to shore up cybersecurity grant programs and increase defenses for the energy sector. This is key: teching-up infrastructure is doomed to fail if we can’t protect it.