Microsoft, Facebook and 32 other tech firms join CyberSecurity Tech Acco

APD NEWS

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On Tuesday, Microsoft, Facebook and 32 other companies signed on to the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, a pact to work together on cybersecurity issues. In addition to stymieing governmental cyberattacks, the companies also agreed to collaborate on stronger defense systems and protect against tampering of their products.

"We called on the world to borrow a page from history in the form of a Digital Geneva Convention, a long-term goal of updating international law to protect people in times of peace from malicious cyberattacks," Microsoft president Brad Smith wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

The financial impact of cybersecurity attacks on businesses and organizations is expected to reach $8 trillion by 2022.

Firms such as Cisco, HP, Nokia, Oracle also joined the accord. Notably, absent from the signers were Apple, Alphabet and Amazon.

Microsoft called for a more uniform approach to protecting users in 2017. The warning came several months before two major ransomware cybersecurity attacks crippled businesses around the world.

(CNN)