Free encryption for VoIP calls

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 23 May 2006 06:58

Business IT - Technology

Philip Zimmermann, developer of the pretty good privacy (PGP) encryption algorithm, has released a public beta for Zfone, a new product for encrypting VoIP conversations.
According to  Zimmermann, "Zfone uses a new protocol called ZRTP, which is better than the other approaches to secure VoIP, because it achieves security without reliance on a PKI, key certification, trust models, certificate authorities, or key management complexity that bedevils the email encryption world.  It also does not rely on SIP signalling for the key management, and in fact does not rely on any servers at all. It performs its key agreements and key management in a purely peer-to-peer manner over the RTP packet stream. It interoperates with any standard SIP phone."

He has submitted the new protocol to the IETF as a proposal for a public standard, to enable interoperability of SIP endpoints from different vendors and is offering Windows XP , Mac OS X Linux versions for free download from his website and the source code is also available to download for peer review.Commentators are predicting that Zimmermann will fall foul of US regulations controlling the export of encryption technology. The US Government claimed that PGP breached export controls, but a three year campaign to prevent its export ended unsuccessfully in 1996.