Security News > 2021 > February > 'We're finding bugs way faster than we can fix them': Google sponsors 2 full-time devs to improve Linux security

Worried about the security of Linux and open-source code, Google is sponsoring a pair of full-time developers to work on the kernel's security.

Both are already working at the Linux Foundation, so what is new? "Gustavo's been working on the Linux kernel at the Linux Foundation for several years now," Lorenc tells us.

How important is Linux to Google? "It's absolutely critical. Google started on Linux. We use it everywhere," says Lorenc.

"For the most part we build our own Linux kernels, but that's the Linux model. For Linux it is not strange to be doing it this way, it is strange in a number of other projects where we do it."

The consequence is that Google loses the convenience most Linux users enjoy, downloading a binary image for a Linux distribution and installing what is needed via a package manager.

"Our basic approach to security at scale across Google and in the rest of the industry is to try to engineer away entire classes of problems. We do have to fix the bugs we find, but at the same time think about ways to fix entire classes of bugs."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/02/24/google_ups_linux_security_effort/