Hacktivist group Anonymous made what it claims is the source code for Symantec’s remote desktop access software pcAnywhere available online early this morning.

Anonymous also published an email conversation between a hacker named ‘Yamatough’ and a purported Symantec employee. In the exchange, ‘Yamatough’ threatens to the publish the source code unless Symantec pays a $50,000 ransom.

"We can’t pay you $50,000 at once for the reasons we discussed previously," said one email from the purported Symantec employee, and instead offered to pay in installments. "In exchange, you will make a public statement on behalf of your group that you lied about the hack."

‘Yamatough’ now claims he only offered the ransom to make Symantec look bad, while Symantec told Reuters that the supposed employee involved in the conversation was "part of the law enforcement investigation".

The security software vendor  told customers to stop using pcAnywhere two weeks ago when Anonymous first claimed that it had stolen the source code. It later said that the software was safe to use as long security patches are up to date.

"Symantec can confirm that a segment of its source code has been accessed," it said in a statement last week. "Upon investigation of the claims made by Anonymous regarding source code disclosure, Symantec believes that the disclosure was the result of a theft of source code that occurred in 2006."