India, Sept. 2 -- A huge amount of technology that powers our daily lives relies on what's called "open-source" software. Open-source means the inner workings of a tool or program are free for anyone to use or improve. But what's surprising and risky about this arrangement is that many of these vital tools are created and maintained by just one person.

For example, a program called 'fast-glob' helps computers quickly find and organise files. It is so helpful that it has been added to thousands of other computer programs, including some used by the US Department of Defense (DoD), according to security company Hunted Labs. The same firm revealed that 'fast-glob' is present in over 30 US military software packages and is downloaded about 75...