Craigslist founder pledges $100 million to boost U.S. cybersecurity

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark believes hacking by foreign governments is a major risk to the U.S. and plans to donate $100 million to bolster the country’s cybersecurity.

Half the money will go toward protecting infrastructure such as power grids from cyberattacks. The other half will go toward educating people about the importance of simple safeguards that are often ignored, such as using password managers and updating software. “The country is under attack," said Newmark in an interview.

He said those who are working to strengthen America’s cybersecurity “need people to champion them." Newmark, who is 71 years old, retired from Craigslist in 2018. He worries that connected products like household appliances are vulnerable to attacks that could, for example, cause simultaneous fires, overwhelming a fire department’s ability to respond. The commitment is part of Newmark’s plan to give away nearly all his wealth.

Including the gift he plans to announce Wednesday at the Aspen Cyber Summit in Washington, D.C., Newmark will have given or pledged to give more than $400 million since he started Craig Newmark Philanthropies in 2015, largely to causes he views as protecting America. (He also donates to groups protecting pigeons, of which he is fond.) Some recipients of the latest pledge have already been selected and notified, including a project affiliated with the University of Chicago’s public policy school to recruit, train and deploy cybersecurity volunteers to strengthen local infrastructure. Another is Common Sense Media, a child internet-safety group.