Sabotage Attempt in Open Source Software Highlights Need for Increased Security

Developer uncovered an act of sabotage in open source software that could have created a backdoor to millions of servers.

Sabotage was introduced by a developer posing as a volunteer contributor named Jia Tan. Tan likely worked for a sophisticated hacking group.

Sabotage was discovered by Microsoft developer Andres Freund before it was widely deployed.

Incident draws attention to the need to better fund and support open source projects relied upon by tech companies.

U.S. government officials say more conversations needed around protecting open source software critical to infrastructure.