Dozens of defense contractors have been found to have numerous software bugs by the Pentagon's Vulnerability Disclosure Program, CNN reports. The discovery of the software vulnerabilities comes amid the growing threat of Russian and Chinese cyberattacks against the U.S. defense industrial base. "We really wanted to focus on those smaller defense contractors that may not have all the budgets and resources," said Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center VDP Interim Director Melissa Vice. Vice noted that 41 firms were a part of the VDP pilot for defense contractors, some of which did not know that they had publicly exposed systems until notified by researchers. Regular funding is now being sought by Vice to accommodate more of the nearly 300,000 firms that are part of the country's defense industrial base. "This is ... a long-term look at how we can take that defense-in-depth layering and extend that umbrella of protection over the defense industrial base," added Vice.