Tech giants sign pledge not to aid government cyberattacks

More than 30 major technology firms, including Microsoft and Facebook, signed a pledge on Tuesday agreeing that they would not assist any government in launching cyberattacks, vowing to “protect all customers regardless of nationality, geography or attack motivation.”

In the new list of principles, titled the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, companies also committed to aiding nations that are the subject of such attacks, even when the motivations are geopolitical.

{mosads}”The devastating attacks from the past year demonstrate that cybersecurity is not just about what any single company can do but also about what we can all do together,” Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said in a statement about the new principles.

Notably absent from the accord’s signees are big technology names including Google, Apple and Amazon.

“This tech sector accord will help us take a principled path toward more effective steps to work together and defend customers around the world.”

Also notably absent among signees are Intel and AMD, whose massive Spectre and Meltdown chip flaws left unprecedented numbers of computers, phones and servers vulnerable to cyberattacks.

The new principles track closely with Smith’s pushes for a new “digital Geneva Convention” that would codify rules and principles of cyber behavior