More than 60 companies join CISA’s pledge to be Secure by Design

During the RSA Conference in San Francisco, more than 60 private sector companies, including tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, and Amazon Web Services, pledged to prioritize cybersecurity in their technology design processes. This commitment was revealed at a signing event hosted by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as part of its “Secure by Design” initiative.

CISA Director Jen Easterly highlighted the industry’s urgency to integrate and enhance security features in both new and existing technologies. The push comes in response to a decade of increasing attacks by foreign nations, ransomware actors, and cybercriminals exploiting vulnerabilities in software, hardware, and other products.

The signatories, which also include major firms like Palo Alto Networks, Lenovo, BlackBerry, Hewlett Packard, GitHub, Avanti, and CrowdStrike, have committed to several actions aimed at reducing product vulnerabilities. These include implementing default multi-factor authentication, phishing-resistant protections, and eliminating default or hardcoded passwords. Additionally, the companies will focus on reducing exploitable vulnerabilities, accelerating security patch installations, and enhancing transparency in disclosing security issues.

The companies also vowed to publish vulnerability disclosure policies to aid third-party security researchers and improve logging capabilities to help customers detect breaches and intrusions more effectively.

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