(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella plan to attend a White House meeting with President Joe Biden this week to discuss efforts by private companies to improve cybersecurity following a dramatic uptick in ransomware and online attacks over the past year, according to people familiar with the matter.
The chief executives of other large tech companies, banks, energy companies and water utilities -- including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon.com Inc., International Business Machines Corp., Southern Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- have also been invited, according to a senior official familiar with the event scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Southern Co. CEO Tom Fanning also plans to attend, according to the official. The company declined to comment.
The executives could discuss efforts undertaken by critical infrastructure entities, including those in the banking, energy and water utility sectors, to improve cybersecurity and collaborations with the government. The tech executives are likely to discuss how software can drive better security in the supply chain, the senior official said.
Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM and JPMorgan declined to comment.
The meeting follows massive cyber and ransomware attacks on critical energy infrastructure, including that of Colonial Pipeline Co., as well as software and cloud providers such as Microsoft and SolarWinds Corp., which have largely been perpetrated by cyber groups based in Russia and China.
(Adds that Microsoft declined to comment.)
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