Earlier this month, we found out that OpenSLL was screwed in the worst possible way: we all got Heartbleed. But fortunately there’s an expert team working to solve the problems: err, two guys named Steve.
Buzzfeed has an excellent feature about Steve Marquess and Stephen Henson, the two men who have been primarily responsible for OpenSSL for more than a decade. The feature reveals that the open source protocol is severely understaffed and underpaid—so it’s perhaps no surprise that a simple flaw like Heartbleed made it into the code. From Buzzfeed:
Something needs to change, and goodwill and fond words alone won’t cut it. Right now significant parts of the internet’s cryptographic security rely on a tiny handful of people who are already stretched to the limits. If that fails, the modern world as we know it could cease to work as it should.
Damn. Straight. Good news, then, that there are already efforts to secure more funding for the project, and, as BuzzFeed reports, the OpenSSL team is already planning on bringing a second full-time developer to the mix. Phew. You should go read the feature, it’s great. [Buzzfeed via Verge]
Image by Marsmettnn Tallahasse under Creative Commons license
