Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are pressing the nonprofit Linux Foundation on how the tech community can better mitigate vulnerabilities in open-source software. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the committee chairman, and Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) sent a letter to the Linux Foundation on Monday, citing the critical “Heartbleed” vulnerability discovered in 2014 that impacted thousands of websites and allowed hackers to steal user passwords.
“As the last several years have made clear, OSS [open-source software] is such a foundational part of the modern connected world that it has become critical cyber infrastructure,” the lawmakers wrote. “As we continue to examine cybersecurity issues generally, it is therefore imperative that we understand the challenges and opportunities the OSS ecosystem faces, and potential steps that OSS stakeholders may take to further support it.”
