Announcing new Security Developer at the PSF

We’re excited to announce that Brett Smith is joining the Python Software Foundation as a Security Developer.

Brett will be working closely with Seth Larson, Security Developer in Residence, and Mike Fiedler, PyPI Safety and Security Engineer, on the PSF’s security team to address the increasingly demanding scale of security response for the Python ecosystem. We’re grateful to Anthropic for their generous support, which has made the critical new Security Developer role possible.

Brett brings a holistic approach to software security. Throughout his career he’s done both software development and Linux administration to support collaborative communities. He’s worked at nonprofits like the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Software Freedom Conservancy as well as on open source projects like Request Tracker and the Arvados bioinformatics platform.

Security Response at Ecosystem Scale

At PyCon US 2026, Seth Larson and Mike Fiedler presented that 2026 was the “year of more” when it comes to security: the Python Security Response Team (PSRT) is processing 3-4× the volume of reports and CVEs for Python and pip compared to just a year ago, and the amount of malware published and removed from the Python Package Index (PyPI) is up 60% compared to last year. The complexity of securing the vast Python ecosystem is growing along with the scale, particularly in the face of the evolving role of AI in both security risks and security response. Providing prompt security response services and innovating to prevent future threats at the scale of an ecosystem like Python is more difficult now than ever before.

Brett’s addition to the PSF positions us to better meet this growing challenge. Having Brett on the team will both build capacity for security work the PSF already does and enable new, proactive work: He’ll help us keep pace with critical ongoing work such as vulnerability remediation, providing vulnerability data as a CVE Numbering Authority, and removing malware from PyPI. He’ll also give the team bandwidth for new projects such as scaling PyPI’s autonomous quarantine program to reduce manual effort on malware remediation and streamlining processes for the PSRT to handle the new vulnerability report volume. Stay tuned for what’s coming next on the PSF security roadmap by subscribing to the PSF blog or newsletter.

About the Python Software Foundation

The Python Software Foundation (PSF) is a non-profit whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers. The PSF supports the Python community using corporate sponsorships, grants, and donations. Are you interested in sponsoring or donating to the PSF so it can continue supporting Python and its community? Check out our sponsorship program, donate directly here, or contact our team!