George Barnes, former NSA deputy director, has made his first venture capital investment of $3 million in Hunted Labs, an open-source cybersecurity startup. With a 35-year career at the NSA, Barnes believes that offensive hacking skills are crucial for effective defense. Hunted Labs, founded by Hayden Smith, aims to address challenges in tracking contributors of open-source software to mitigate risks of foreign influence and vulnerabilities, especially highlighted by recent incidents like the backdoor found in xz Utils.
"We don't know what connections they have to any organization or any foreign influence," said Hayden Smith, emphasizing the need for transparency in software contributions.
"The NSA had positioned itself to actually penetrate our adversaries," Barnes explained, highlighting the agency's strategy of using offensive capabilities to enhance defensive measures.
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