The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled plans to improve cybersecurity for the US electric power system to address growing concerns about a potentially crippling hack of the power grid.

The initiative announced by the White House and Energy Department calls for a joint public-private effort over the coming 100 days to modernize utilities’ control systems which could be vulnerable to hackers.

“The United States faces a well-documented and increasing cyber threat from malicious actors seeking to disrupt the electricity Americans rely on to power our homes and businesses,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

“It’s up to both government and industry to prevent possible harms — that’s why we’re working together to take these decisive measures so Americans can rely on a resilient, secure, and clean energy system.”

No specific funding was announced for the initiative, which comes after experts have cited increased cyber threats to so-called critical infrastructure during the coronavirus pandemic.

Some reports said hundreds of utilities and related services were infected with malware as part of the massive SolarWinds breach.

White House national security spokesperson Emily Horne the 100-day plan “includes aggressive but achievable milestones and will assist owners and operators as they modernize cybersecurity defenses, including enhancing detection, mitigation, and forensic capabilities.”

Officials said the plan encourages operators to upgrade systems that enable near “real time situational awareness” in the face of cyber threats.

Asian shares rose on Tuesday, led by a stronger Chinese opening and shaking off the initial drag from tech-driven Wall Street losses, while the dollar stayed at multiweek lows against other major currencies.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) gained 0.2%, swinging into positive territory after Chinese blue chips (.CSI300) rose 0.13%. South Korea (.KS11) gained 0.4%.

Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) dropped 1.84%, as the country continues to grapple with a resurgence in COVID cases. Australia (.AXJO) slipped 0.33%.

Britain’s unemployment rate unexpectedly fell for a second month in a row to 4.9% in the December-to-February period, most of which the country spent under a tight COVID-19 lockdown, official figures showed on Tuesday.

Economists polled by Reuters had largely forecast that the jobless rate – which has been held down by the government’s huge jobs subsidies programme – would edge up to 5.1% from 5.0% in the three months to January.

The ONS linked the fall to a large volume of men leaving the jobs market altogether. The so-called inactivity rate rose by 0.2 percentage points in the three months to February, echoing a rise during the first lockdown of last year.

There was another reminder of the precarious state of the labour market in figures from Britain’s tax office which showed the number of employees on company payrolls fell by 56,000 between February and March, the first decline in four months.

That pushed up the total number of jobs lost since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic to 813,000 – more than half of which were held by people aged under 25, with hospitality-heavy London the hardest-hit region, the ONS said.

“If we don’t act quickly, in particular by focusing our support on the long-term unemployed, then we are risking another lost generation,” Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, said.

The head of global airline industry body IATA has hit out at the high cost of COVID-19 testing, accusing providers of profiteering from travel, and calling for the industry to challenge whether PCR tests are necessary.

European airlines are counting on a travel rebound this summer after months of COVID-19 restrictions left them struggling with minimal revenues and huge new debts taken on to survive the pandemic.

But any demand for PCR tests that can cost more than the short flights themselves threatens the recovery.

“We’re clearly seeing evidence of profiteering by people who have jumped on the testing bandwagon,” Willie Walsh, IATA’s new director general, said at a virtual industry conference on Tuesday.

He said that governments had mandated PCR tests and were then charging value added tax on the cost of the testing, a scenario which he said needed to be challenged.