GnuPG.com Says "Hello!"
Posted on February 3, 2020 by Heike Jurzik
Got five minutes? If you take just five minutes to read this post, you'll get to know who we are, what we do, and why we're so passionate about it.
We're GnuPG.com, a team of developers based in Erkrath, Germany, right in the heart of the Rhineland. Everything we do centers around GnuPG, the encryption software. We're constantly working to improve its core components, make it more user-friendly, and offer support services.
Our three main developers are Werner Koch, Andre Heinecke, and Niibe Yutaka:
Werner invented GnuPG back in 1997, after attending a talk by Richard Stallman. At the time, Stallman was looking for a free alternative to PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), which couldn't become a free, global standard due to US export restrictions. For his work on GnuPG, Werner received the "Award for the Advancement of Free Software" from the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in 2015. He's also a co-founder of FSFE (Free Software Foundation Europe e. V.), the European sister organization. Werner left the organization in 2019 to focus entirely on the GnuPG project. Today, he mainly works on the cryptography backend of GnuPG.
Andre has been working on the Windows port of the free KDE desktop since 2009. In 2013, he took over as lead developer for Gpg4win—the GnuPG GUI for Windows. Since 2019, he's been doing this full-time with our team as a Frontend/User Experience developer. That same year, he moved from Vienna to the Rhineland to fully focus on GnuPG development. He also mentions that being on-site helps onboard new team members more effectively: with everyone in the same place, there's less friction.
Niibe is based in Japan and currently has no plans to move to Erkrath—though that's a much longer distance than Andre covered when he moved from Vienna. Niibe first encountered computers back in 1980 as a middle school student (his school used Z80-based machines), and in the mid-80s, he assembled a 68000 computer kit. Since the turn of the millennium, he's been an advocate for free software; in 2006, he became the chairman of the Free Software Initiative of Japan (FSIJ). He's been working on the GnuPG project since 2011 and is responsible for hardware support at GnuPG.com, with a focus on smartcards.
What We Do
So, what exactly do we do at GnuPG.com? GnuPG is critical security software used by people all around the world for secure email communication (encryption and signatures). That's why it's so important not to just let the software age, but to continuously maintain and improve it.
But that's not all: we also want to make the software more user-friendly and increase the number of users. For example, with the Windows GUI Gpg4win, we see about 140,000 downloads directly from our server every month. We don't know how many users get the software from other sources, because we (deliberately) don't collect user statistics.
There are still far too many unencrypted messages floating around the internet, which can be read like postcards on any machine that handles the transport. The more widespread encryption software becomes, and the more users encrypt their emails, the harder it will be to implement mass surveillance.
Why We Do It
At GnuPG.com, we believe Werner had a brilliant idea and that we're working on something important. Our encryption software plays a crucial role in keeping society free and democratic, protecting individuals, businesses, organizations, and government agencies from unauthorized access. That's why our software is freely available on GnuPG.org (with ".org" instead of ".com") under the terms of the GPL: no one has to pay to use it or miss out because of cost, and no one has to trust us blindly. Those with the technical skills can analyze our source code.
When you develop free software, you're not creating something for the drawer or reinventing the wheel for the twentieth time just because you can't use someone else's code. Of course, it's also important to us to create something lasting and sustainable. Nothing lasts forever, but we're pretty sure GnuPG will be encrypting for a long time to come.
GnuPG.org vs. GnuPG.com
We've noticed that email security isn't taken as seriously by many businesses—either the encryption software isn't set up properly, or users are left to fend for themselves without a place to turn for help. GnuPG is not as complicated and unusable as it's often made out to be.
On the contrary, GnuPG and its related tools are also attractive products for large companies and government agencies. These organizations often look for a vendor who can handle the initial setup and provide a service and support contract. Until recently, there was no go-to option for this—a particular problem when internal processes require an external contact person.
That's where GnuPG.com steps in: We offer "GnuPG Desktop", a version of Gpg4win tailored for enterprise use. This software encrypts and signs emails, files, and folders on Windows. Through a Service Level Agreement, we can provide support with guaranteed response times. So, as a client, you won't get a lone wolf (possibly in a different time zone) but a team of experts—our GmbH based in Erkrath, Rhineland.
We're especially proud that in November 2019, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) issued an approval recommendation for Gpg4win and Gpg4KDE for the transmission and processing of classified national information up to the security classification level of VS-NfD. You can read more details in our (German) press release.