Amazon, Apple and Microsoft CEOs to attend WH cybersecurity meeting

Executives from several large companies, including Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, are expected to meet with President Joe Biden on Wednesday at the White House to discuss cybersecurity.

CNBC has confirmed that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy will attend, a detail first reported by Reuters. Bloomberg said Monday that Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will also attend.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna is also planning to attend the meeting, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC. IBM declined to comment.

An Apple spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Microsoft spokesperson deferred his comment to the White House, which declined to comment on the matter.

The meeting comes as the Biden administration grapples with the growing threat of cyber attacks. Microsoft was among those affected by the SolarWinds hack that affected several government agencies, Reuters reported last year. This was just one of many recent breaches that have brought urgent cybersecurity issues to light. Others include the Colonial Pipeline hack and ransomware attacks that impacted municipalities and healthcare systems.

The White House first announced Wednesday’s cybersecurity meeting in July, which Press Secretary Jen Psaki described as “a meeting with leaders from the private sector to discuss how we are working together to collectively improve the country’s cybersecurity “.

The Google CEO was also invited to the meeting, according to Bloomberg. A Google spokesperson deferred his comment to the White House.

Open communication with the private sector can be particularly important in dealing with cyber attacks. After the SolarWinds hack, Microsoft chairman Brad Smith told lawmakers that the only reason the company knew the extent of the attack was because computer security firm FireEye disclosed a sophisticated attack on its own systems.

Since then, Senators Mark Warner, D-Va., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., And Susan Collins, R-Maine, have introduced a bill that would require private sector companies that work with government or provide critical infrastructure services to disclose cyber attacks on their systems. It would also protect those companies from some possible negative impacts of reporting the violation, such as being sued by shareholders using the disclosed information as evidence.

– CNBC’s Jordan Novet and Kif Leswing contributed to this report.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

WATCH: How the massive SolarWinds hack unfolded