Encryption tool rekindles security debate
<<<... "They will have entire digital jukeboxes of covertly acquired telephone conversations, and suddenly someone in Eastern Europe is going to be very wealthy," he said. While he is giving away his software so far, his goal is to attract developers of voice over Internet protocol software and hardware to license his technology and embed it in their products. Zfone can automatically encrypt any call between users of freely available VOIP software programs like X-Lite, Gizmo or SJphone. It can be downloaded at www.philzimmermann.com. The system does not work with Skype, the VOIP system acquired by eBay, which uses its own encryption scheme.But at a conference last week in Cyprus, German officials said they had technology for intercepting and decrypting Skype phone calls, according to Tony Rutkowski, vice president for regulatory affairs and standards at VeriSign, a company that offers security services for Internet and telephone operations. Zimmermann said he had not yet tested Zfone's compatibility with Vonage, another popular VOIP service. In the trade-off between privacy and security, Zimmermann contends that the world is better off with strong cryptography. Zfone can be considered an asset, in fact, he said, as it allows people to have secret conversations but not to hide their Internet protocol addresses, which could be traceable geographically. Those observed having a secured conversation could come under suspicion, of course. But for that reason, he argued, sophisticated criminals or terrorists are unlikely to use the technology. "I'm sympathetic to the needs of the intelligence community to catch the bad guys," he said. "I specifically protect the content the criminals want, while simultaneously not interfering with the traffic analysis" that the National Security Agency is trying to do.