German software developer Werner Koch is known for creating the free email encryption software used by thousands of journalists, dissidents, and security-minded people around the world, including whistleblower Edward Snowden. Although he was awarded a one-time grant of $60,000 from Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure Initiative, Koch recently announced that he’s running out of money to keep his project afloat.
Werner Koch. Image via theregister.co.uk.
It was back in 1997 when Koch wrote the software, known as Gnu Privacy Guard, and since then he’s been almost single-handedly keeping it alive, powering popular email encryption programs such as GPGTools, Enigmail, and GPG4Win, which are also living off of just enough donations to keep them online. Now at 53, Koch is running out of money and patience, as much of the Internet’s security software is underfunded and is becoming increasingly problematic.
A screenshot of Gnu Privacy Guard. Image via codeproject.com.
As many people who build security software, Koch believes that offering the underlying software code for free is the best way to demonstrate that there are no hidden backdoors in it giving access to spy agencies. What this also means is that many important computer security tools are built and maintained by volunteers. But even after more than a year after Snowden’s revelations, Koch is still struggling to raise the money he needs to pay himself and to hire a full-time programmer. According to the software developer, he’s made about $25,000 per year since 2001, which is just a fraction of what he could earn in a private industry. Fortunately, this past December he launched a fundraising campaign and reached his funding goal of $137,000. His code works on plenty of operating systems used by many on a daily basis, from Linux and FreeBSD to Windows and OS X.
According to networkworld.com, Koch prefers not to think about what will happen if his money ever runs out. “I’m very glad that there is money for the next three months,” he said. “Really I am better at programming than this business stuff.”
Interested in keeping Koch's project afloat? You can donate to the project here.
Story via networkworld.com.
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