Do you remember Phil Zimmermann? Do you remember Pretty Good Privacy? If not then let me remind you. He was the person who gave to this world free e-mail encryption stated above nearly a decade back. This gentleman who emerged as an Internet hero because of threat of federal prosecution during the 90's has again come forward to offer the same type of encrypted security to VoIP. Zimmerman had introduced Zfone last year that blankets VoIP calls in an additional layer of security. In order to make VoIP calls safer he is busy trying to convince VoIP makers to embed Zfone in their products and this week clinched the first licensing deal.
He efforts in trying to make Zfone popular has landed him in the center of heated technical and political debate as to how to make VoIP conversations secure while at the same time permit security agencies to conduct electronic surveillance. Already the Bush administration has been asking for the broadband internet services to be tapped and in June the courts had permitted that but this ruling is still being appealed.
His software makes these political debates lose political relevance as Zfone encrypts the conversation from end to end so that no body could listen to your private conversations. VoIP needs to be made secure as computer networks do not offer the same security as that of public switched telephone networks.
It seems that Zimmermann is gonna face tough resistance from the U.S. government. Will he succeed? Let's see.
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