NAI founder opens up on PGP source code

The creator of Network Associates (NAI) Phil Zimmerman said the release of PGP source code was long overdue.

NAI announced late last week the release of the source code for its PGP cryptographic toolkit for the academic and peer community. But master cryptographer Zimmerman says the PGP software source code should have been available in the first place.

Phil Zimmerman told silicon.com: "The academic and peer community needs an open source cryptography, otherwise researchers will not be able to develop nor improve on it. NAI should never have made it closed source in the first place," he said.

Zimmerman said that the release only includes PGP's cryptographic toolkit, but excludes code for tools like the graphical user interface (GUI).

He said: " The reason they're not publishing all the source code is because parts of PGP are integrated into their other products. I believe they are opening the code for the toolkit in order to try and gain trust amongst the cryptographic community in the product," he said.

Zimmerman left NAI earlier this year because he was reportedly unhappy with the direction NAI was taking the PGP software.