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What public money does to open-source projects

Roughly 96 percent of codebases contain open-source software, according to a Help Net Security report, highlighting the critical dependence on volunteer-written code that underpins most corporate applications, build pipelines, and machine learning stacks. The December 2021 log4j flaw and the 2024 xz utils backdoor underscore the security risks of this reliance, prompting questions about the impact of public funding on open-source projects.

read1 min views52 publishedJul 16, 2026

Most of the software running inside a typical company was written by volunteers the company never paid. Open-source code sits under web apps, build pipelines, and the machine learning stacks getting so much attention right now. Roughly 96 percent of codebases carry some of it. That dependence turned visible in December 2021, when the log4j flaw exposed applications from Twitter to Minecraft. The xz utils backdoor of 2024 drove the point home again. Both traced … More

The post What public money does to open-source projects appeared first on Help Net Security.

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