Socket is a cybersecurity company purpose-built to protect organizations from software supply chain attacks. As modern applications increasingly rely on open source packages—often introducing thousands of third-party dependencies—Socket delivers a real-time, behavior-based approach to identify and block malicious code before it reaches production environments. What Socket Does Unlike traditional tools that scan for known vulnerabilities (CVEs) or rely solely on metadata, Socket dives deeper, analyzing the actual behavior of open source packages to detect indicators of compromise, suspicious changes, or emerging threats. Key features and services include: -Malicious Package Detection: Socket continuously monitors package registries (like npm) and detects suspicious behavior such as credential stealing, network access, or dynamic code execution. This enables organizations to avoid introducing risky dependencies. -Real-Time Threat Prevention: Socket alerts developers and security teams when a new package version exhibits malicious traits—often catching threats that static tools miss entirely. -Dependency Behavior Analysis: Socket goes beyond vulnerability scanning by inspecting how a package behaves, including what permissions it requests, which files it accesses, and what network calls it makes. -License and Policy Enforcement: Teams can define and enforce open source license policies, ensuring that compliance risks are caught early in the development lifecycle. -Reachability Analysis: Socket identifies whether a vulnerable or risky piece of code is actually reachable within your app, helping prioritize true threats. -Support for Multiple Languages: While Socket started with a strong focus on the JavaScript ecosystem, it is expanding to cover other popular languages such as Python, Java, and Ruby. How Socket Contributes to the Cybersecurity Community Socket was founded by Feross Aboukhadijeh, a veteran open source developer and security researcher with deep roots in the JavaScript community. His personal experience maintaining widely-used open source libraries led to a mission: make open source safer without slowing down developers. Socket embodies this mission through: -Open Security Education: Socket publishes detailed write-ups of discovered attacks and vulnerabilities, helping educate developers and defenders alike about modern supply chain threats. -Free Community Tools: Socket offers a free tier for individual developers and small projects, making critical security insights available to the open source ecosystem. -Thought Leadership: The Socket team regularly speaks at conferences, publishes blogs, and contributes to open discussions about open source security standards and best practices. -Early Threat Sharing: By detecting malicious packages in near real-time, Socket often becomes one of the first responders in the ecosystem, alerting package maintainers, registries, and other affected parties before widespread damage occurs. Why Socket Stands Out -Proactive, not Reactive: Instead of waiting for the next CVE to be filed, Socket detects suspicious behavior at publish time, stopping threats before they spread. -Built for Developers: Socket integrates directly into developer workflows (via GitHub, CI/CD, and CLI tools), helping security and engineering teams work in sync rather than in opposition. -Focused on Open Source Health: Socket isn't just about blocking bad actors—it’s about enabling safer, more responsible use of open source software at scale. By providing real-time visibility, actionable insights, and preventative defense mechanisms, Socket is reshaping software supply chain security. Their tools help developers ship secure code confidently—without sacrificing speed, innovation, or open source adoption.