The program is geared toward network security professionals, and is not as novice-friendly as similar applications.

Distributed under the GNU General Public License,[2] KisMAC is free software.

The project was created and led by Michael Rossberg until July 27, 2007, when he removed himself from the project due to changes in German law (specifically, StGB Section 202c) that "prohibits the production and distribution of security software".

[4] On this date, project lead was passed on to Geoffrey Kruse, maintainer of KisMAC since 2003, and active developer since 2001.

[citation needed] Primary development, and the relocated KisMAC web site were offline as of September 2016.