President Barack Obama’s National Security Council says that disclosing vulnerabilities in commercial and open source software is in the national interest and shouldn’t be withheld from the public unless there is a clear national security or law enforcement need.

The statement of White House policy comes after a computer bug called “Heartbleed” has caused major security concerns across the Internet. It’s affected a widely used encryption technology that’s designed to protect online accounts. Major Internet services have been working this week to insulate themselves against the bug.

The NSC’s spokeswoman, Caitlin Hayden, said in a statement Saturday that the federal government was not aware of the Heartbleed vulnerability in the encryption technology until it was made public.

(AP)