"Unveiling the XZ Backdoor: How One Engineer Stopped a Devastating Cyberattack"

A Microsoft engineer discovered that the open source software program XZ Utils had been sabotaged by a developer, potentially creating a backdoor to millions of servers. The developer, believed to be a pseudonym for an expert hacker or group, introduced a nearly invisible backdoor into XZ. The near-miss has raised concerns about the safety of open source software and the need to protect it from well-resourced spies. Government officials and cybersecurity agencies are discussing how to better protect open source code, with calls for tech companies to contribute resources to the open source ecosystem.