The US military wants to understand the most important software on Earth

One such performer is New York–based Margin Research, which has put together a team of well- respected researchers.

Sophia d'Antoine said there was a need to treat open-source communities and projects with a higher level of care and respect. It depends on open source and we assume it will always be there. The trust we have in open-source code bases and software has been lost.

Margin Research focuses on the Linux kernel because it is so important that you can make it anywhere else if you succeed here. The plan is to analyze both the code and the community in order to understand the wholeecosystem.

Who is working on what parts of open-source projects is mapped out by Margin. One of the contributors works for Positive Technologies, a Russian cybersecurity firm that has been sanctioned by the US government.

Even the most simple things seem so novel to so many important people. Our critical infrastructure is running code that could be written by sanctioned entities, according to the government. It's right now.

Critical software that is run entirely by one or two volunteers is under investment. It is more common than you might think, and one common way software projects measure risk is thebus factor.

SocialCyber may be the most pressing issue for the world's computer systems, but it will also tackle other open-sourced projects too. Python is an open-source programming language used in a lot of artificial-intelligence and machine-learning projects.

It is hoped that greater understanding will make it easier to prevent disasters even if they are caused by malicious activity.

A recent study shows that 70% or more of proprietary software is open source.

“This is a critical infrastructure problem,” Aitel says. “We don’t have a grip on it. We need to get a grip on it. The potential impact is that malicious hackers will always have access to Linux machines. That includes your phone. It’s that simple.”