Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark Says US ‘Under Attack’ From Hackers

Saying the United States is “under attack,” Craigslist founder Craig Newmark reportedly made a $100 million cybersecurity pledge.

Newmark said the country is at risk for hacking by foreign governments, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday (Sept. 18). As such, Newmark is donating $50 million to protect infrastructure like power grids against cyberterrorism, and the rest of the money to cybersecurity education.

“The country is under attack,” said Newmark, per the report, adding that workers in the cybersecurity sector “need people to champion them.”

Newmark painted scenarios in which connected products such as household appliances would be attacked and cause simultaneous fires, hindering a fire department’s ability to respond, according to the report.

The pledge is part of a larger plan by Newmark to give away the bulk of his wealth. In addition to the $100 million for cybersecurity, Newmark will have given or pledged more than $400 million since founding Craig Newmark Philanthropies in 2015, the report said.

His efforts to beef up America’s digital defenses come amid a wave of reported security breaches, outages and other cybersecurity incidents.

“2024 is Already the Year of the Cyberattack” read a PYMNTS headline July 4 after high-profile attacks that weakened the country’s healthcare system and automotive sales industry.

Since then, there have been reports of ransomware attacks at the Paris Olympics and the Port of Seattle, as well as a mass outage of IT systems — affecting airports, banks and hospitals — tied to a software glitch at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

Cyber and data breaches are becoming almost unavoidable, and large businesses in the digital landscape will continue to be enticing targets for criminals due to their combination of valuable data, complex systems and the potential for substantial ransom payments.

In interviews for the “What’s Next in Payments” series, executives told PYMNTS that a multilayered security strategy, otherwise known as defense in depth, is vital for lowering risks at various levels. It’s an approach that means employing multiple defensive measures across the enterprise network.