Voice Encryption May Draw U.S. Scrutiny (PGP Creator Phil Zimmerman)

[swag]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/22/technology/22privacy.html

Voice Encryption May Draw U.S. Scrutiny
By JOHN MARKOFF
SAN FRANCISCO, May 21 — Philip R. Zimmermann wants to protect online privacy. Who could object to that?

He has found out once already. Trained as a computer scientist, he developed a program in 1991 called Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP, for scrambling and unscrambling e-mail messages. It won a following among privacy rights advocates and human rights groups working overseas — and a three-year federal criminal investigation into whether he had violated export restrictions on cryptographic software. The case was dropped in 1996, and Mr. Zimmermann, who lives in Menlo Park, Calif., started PGP Inc. to sell his software commercially.

Now he is again inviting government scrutiny. On Sunday, he released a free Windows software program, Zfone, that encrypts a computer-to-computer voice conversation so both parties can be confident that no one is listening in. It became available earlier this year to Macintosh and Linux users of the system known as voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP.

What sets Zfone apart from comparable systems is that it does not require a web of computers to hold the keys, or long numbers, used in most encryption schemes. Instead, it performs the key exchange inside the digital voice channel while the call is being set up, so no third party has the keys.

Zfone's introduction comes as reports continue to emerge about the government's electronic surveillance efforts. A lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy rights group, contends that AT&T has given the National Security Agency real-time access to Internet communications.

. . .

[mike_c]

1. this is going to be a big deal in the telcom industry....

The only drawback I see so far is that Zfone is not open source. Zimmerman is very trustworthy, and there is a good argument that the NSA will float hacked versions of any open sourced VOIP encryption code, but that can be circumvented pretty easily by folks like GNU and open source is by definition the best defense against that sort of thing.

BTW, get it here: http://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/zfone/index.html

[acmejack]

2. Email encryption did, so this is little surprise.

There are specific regulations aimed at criminalizing the use of email encryption, which the feds fought tooth and nail to ban entirely.. Elevating harmless conversation to a very serious felony, if the prosecution can make a tenuous conspiracy case using encrypted email stand. Plea bargain or risk going away for the rest of your life? Do you feel lucky, punk?

edit for clarity

[mike_c]

3. think of the conspicuous differences rather than the similarities, too....

At the time PGP was released, the internet was still mostly an academic, scientific, and defense industry network and probably less than one or two percent of Americans even used email or computer file exchange with any regularity. Zfone on the other hand provides essentially user transparent strong encryption to VOICE COMMS-- the most prevalent communication medium in existence for most people. It does require a technology change for many (to specific software supported VOIP protocols), but I suspect that will only hasten widespread adoption of VOIP rather than hinder the adoption of encryption. And when hardware router manufacturers begin to offer something like Zfone, EVERYONE will want it.

Zfone turns the standard gov't security disclaimer on its ear. Instead of "if you don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't fear gov't intrusion," encryption turns the tables to "if the gov't isn't invading privacy, it should not object to encrypted communicatins."

[acmejack]

4. An excellent point.

That is perfect, I shall have to study this. I use voip, i have long threatened to encrypt voice just for nuisance value