*Global technology giants Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM and Microsoft, in a recent meeting with US President Joe Biden in the White House, all pledge to support the country as a whole in addressing the rising tide of cyber threats

Gbenga Kayode | 绿帽献妻

As high-profile cybersecurity incidents continue to happen in the cyberspace with damaging consequences on especially businesses and organisations around the world, consumers are also impacted as hackers go after any amount of personal data they can access.

绿帽献妻 gathered that global 鈥楤ig Tech鈥� stalwarts Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft, in a face-to-face meeting with United States (US) President Joe Biden Wednesday, August 25, 2021, all agreed to write big, fat cheques to help the American country as a whole to address the rising tide of cybersecurity threats in recent times.

Some of the Big Tech companies

The companies also plan to address the ever-widening abyss of high-growth jobs in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector of the economy, agency report stated.

Technology giants鈥� individual commitments to fighting cyberthreats

On their assurances to support the US Government to combat the growing cybersecurity threats, President Biden said of the Big Tech鈥檚 commitment, that Google says it鈥檚 good for $10billion over the next five years to expand zero-trust programmes, help secure the software supply chain, and enhance security.

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The company also promised to assist 100,000 Americans in earning industry-recognised digital skills certificates.

As regards Apple, Biden disclosed the firm announced that it would create a new programme, one that includes over 9,000 US suppliers in order to drive continuous security improvements throughout the technology supply chain.

Whereas another plus for tech education came from IBM, which announced that it would train 150,000 people in cybersecurity skills over the next three years.

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It was learnt the company will place a special focus on historically Black colleges and universities to create 鈥淐ybersecurity Leadership Centers鈥� in an effort to grow a more diverse cyber workforce.

Microsoft, which apparently has been on the wrong end of some serious hacks this year, also announced that it will invest $20billion between 2021 and 2026 to up the ante on cybersecurity both by design and in delivery throughout its systems.

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To prime the pump, the company announced that it will immediately make available $150 million in technical services to help Federal, state and local governments upgrade their current security protection in the United States.

The firm also pledged to invest heavily in technology training by expanding partnerships with community colleges and non-profits.

As its commitment, e-commerce giant Amazon said it will make the same security awareness training it offers its employees freely available.

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The company as well plans to offer a free multi-factor authentication device to protect against cybersecurity threats, such as phishing and password theft to all of its Amazon Web Services account holders.

Those account holders include companies, such as Facebook, Netflix, Adobe, ESPN, Ticketmaster, Samsung and Disney.

On increasing tech education and jobs

A huge challenge facing these Big Tech companies, report said, is that nearly half a million cybersecurity jobs remain unfilled.

A spokesperson at the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) told ConsumerAffairs, that as of this week, it was tracking 454,366 job ads for cybersecurity in the US, 13 percent more than the year before.

According to report, the education effort is not being carried solely by the Big Tech.

However, in order to get consumers trained quickly, colleges and organisations are investing heavily in 鈥渕icro-credentialing鈥� and training that does not call for a four-year college degree.

In this regard, Girls Who Code has announced that it will establish a micro-credentialing programme for historically excluded groups in the country.

Meanwhile, the University of Texas (UT) System was said to have informed the White House, that it would make available entry-level cyber educational programmes through UT San Antonio鈥檚 Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute, to help in growing new short-term credentials in cyber-related fields by more than 1 million workers.

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Todd Thibodeaux, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at CompTIA, said: 鈥淭o meet the scale of the demand for cybersecurity skills, we need to be considering creative alternatives to the classic college pathway into the profession.

鈥淭he majority of cyber jobs don鈥檛 require a four-year computer science degree.鈥�

The President of CompTIA also stated: 鈥淲e can have people come through community college programs, through for-profit university programmes, through online university programs, through paid apprenticeships and through industry certification programmes that can be completed in a matter of months to accelerate this process.鈥�

Therefore, if there鈥檚 any doubt that a tech education can pay off, recent data indicated that tech professionals in nine of the 10 top-paying states in the US make over 70 percent more than the average worker, according to report.

It was learnt that life as a techie in places like Alabama, in the United States, pays off especially well.

The average salary for someone in technology in Alabama is $86,720 a year, which is 85 percent higher than the $46,840 that salary workers in other fields in the state bring home, report noted.

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