VoIP Strong Encryption

Phil Zimmerman once riled the government in 1991 when he created PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), the encryption algorithm that utilizes large prime numbers and a peer to peer key exchange routine resulting in an extraordinarily difficult scheme to crack. The algorithm became the de facto standard amongst the security crowd for encrypting e-mails, resulting in a variety of software applications from the commercial PGP Desktop, it's free cousin PGPi and an open source derivative called GPG.

Fifteen years later, Zimmerman has recognized a new medium in need of digital defense, VoIP (Voice over IP). He has created ZFone, a free application for OS X, Windows and Linux that enables strong encryption of point to point voice communications on the Internet. Operating under a similar premise as PGP, it handles encryption key exchange between the communicating parties and does not rely on an escrow key agent. Many predict difficulties between the software and government because it eliminates the ability for filtering hardware to 'listen in,' a requirement the FCC mandates on ISPs and VoIP providers. Some governments even require by law that parties turn over encryption keys on demand, a legal requirement this software renders impossible to fulfill with dynamic, session based keys.