Executive Director Elizabeth Barron of the PHP ​Foundation said that she is the only full-time staff member at the organisation, with others being part-time contractors. (Image: Reuters)

The discovery of two serious flaws in PHP this week set off a global scramble to keep websites safe from hackers, showing just how critical the three-decade-old open-source programming language is to the internet.

Yet the nonprofit ⁠foundation ​that supports PHP, which may underpin up to 70% of sites globally, operates on a shoestring budget.

“We have one full-time staff member (that’s me) and 14 mostly part-time contractors,” Executive Director Elizabeth Barron of the PHP ​Foundation ​said via email in an interview ⁠on Friday.…