Source: voipcentral.org

Philip Zimmermann hardly needs any introduction. The name is very much familiar in the VoIP world. He has developed the most popular VoIP encryption protocols like ZRTP and Zfone. He is now working with Atelier to bring secure VoIP services for Symbian smartphones in line with his Zfone software.

The Zfone software can automatically encrypt voice calls made over the Internet and turn Symbian smartphones into secure crypto phones. It will also ensure privacy of your voice communication by checking wiretapping or eavesdropping.

Marc Menschenfreund, CEO of Atelier said,

We’re seeing VoIP telephony’s stellar growth and acceptance in the mass market, but users do not realize their Internet calls are more likely and easily intercepted than with standard telephony. With Phil Zimmermann’s Zfone for Symbian OS, we’re bringing to the masses the same level of privacy to VoIP calls that PGP brought to email.

The unique feature of Zfone software is that, it can turn VoIP clients into secure phones by filtering the VoIP packets as they pass through the communications. It supports Windows, Mac and Linux.

The Zfone software sets a cryptographic key agreement between the two parties during the communication. After that, it encrypts and decrypts the voice packets to make the VoIP calls secure.

Via: Blognation

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

TG Daily reports;

Las Vegas (CA) – PGP creator Phil Zimmermann is now focusing his crypto skills on making VoIP calls more secure. At the Black Hat security convention in Las Vegas, he showed off his latest version of the Zfone client that encrypts VoIP calls. Zfone can be easily used with most VoIP clients and, according to Zimmermann, will appear in future hardware-based VoIP phones.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

TG Daily reports;

Las Vegas (CA) – PGP creator Phil Zimmermann is now focusing his crypto skills on making VoIP calls more secure. At the Black Hat security convention in Las Vegas, he showed off his latest version of the Zfone client that encrypts VoIP calls. Zfone can be easily used with most VoIP clients and, according to Zimmermann, will appear in future hardware-based VoIP phones.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Philip R. Zimmermann is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy, an email encryption software package. Originally designed as a human rights tool, PGP was published for free on the Internet in 1991, Has done it again.
This time with your VOIP or your IP Telephony calls. Using Zfone, one could use existing phone connection (VOIP) to make secure calls.
if you really want to run Zfone now, you need to run a software VoIP client (such as X-Lite, Gizmo, SJphone, or perhaps a software VoIP client supplied by your VoIP service provider) on your PC or Macintosh computer. But it will not run with skype due to their closed protocol
If you want to read a full test and a great article, I can point you to one. Eric Y. Chen at Voice of VOIPSA has done a super job of testing and publishing the results. You get driven through installation, test setup, man in the middle analysis and the final results or conclusion. Visit his site and be prepared to spend a bit of time.
His words;
"Zfone is very user-friendly since it hides most of the encryption mechanism from its users. Its independence from PKI and signaling makes the technology very accessible to individuals. Zfone, being a “bump in the cord”, also allows its users to keep their favorite SIP softphones without switching to an unfamiliar one. Moreover, because only the end users are involved in the key management, the service provider does not have access to any of the keys. Eavesdropping on Zfone users seems extremely difficult as the attacker would have to be present since the first call, able to forge verbal SAS verification in real time, and preferably, able to imitate voices."

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Philip R. Zimmermann is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy, an email encryption software package. Originally designed as a human rights tool, PGP was published for free on the Internet in 1991, Has done it again.
This time with your VOIP or your IP Telephony calls. Using Zfone, one could use existing phone connection (VOIP) to make secure calls.
if you really want to run Zfone now, you need to run a software VoIP client (such as X-Lite, Gizmo, SJphone, or perhaps a software VoIP client supplied by your VoIP service provider) on your PC or Macintosh computer. But it will not run with skype due to their closed protocol
If you want to read a full test and a great article, I can point you to one. Eric Y. Chen at Voice of VOIPSA has done a super job of testing and publishing the results. You get driven through installation, test setup, man in the middle analysis and the final results or conclusion. Visit his site and be prepared to spend a bit of time.
His words;
"Zfone is very user-friendly since it hides most of the encryption mechanism from its users. Its independence from PKI and signaling makes the technology very accessible to individuals. Zfone, being a “bump in the cord”, also allows its users to keep their favorite SIP softphones without switching to an unfamiliar one. Moreover, because only the end users are involved in the key management, the service provider does not have access to any of the keys. Eavesdropping on Zfone users seems extremely difficult as the attacker would have to be present since the first call, able to forge verbal SAS verification in real time, and preferably, able to imitate voices."

Source: voipcentral.org

Today, Philip Zimmerman is planning to release Zfone, the free VoIP encryption program for Windows that he earlier released for Macintosh and Linux users.

First, lets see what makes Zfone different from other encryption programs. Zfone actually does away with a web of computers holding keys (which may be long numeric keys, alphanumeric keys or alphanumeric + special characters). Instead, when the call is made, the key exchange is performed inside the digital voice channel. Therefore, any third party does not hold the key.

Now lets take a rewind to the past history of encryption and Zimmerman. About 15 years back when Philip Zimmerman released Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) for encrypting email, despite its popularity it got embroiled in a federal criminal investigation in the US. The investigation was to ascertain whether Zimmerman had violated export restrictions on cryptographic program. Nothing came out of it, about 5 years later in1996 the case was dropped, and PGP Inc. came into being.

So are the chances of Zfone getting embroiled again in such a legal tangle in the US? With the current administration being paranoid about security there, where recent wiretapping incidents are a raging controversy, it seems that the Zfone on Windows, which will have far more users than Mac or Linux, will be under the scanner. However, as Marc Rotenberg, Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington, said from the FCCs angle that since point-to-point communication cant be regulated, Zimmerman is likely to get away with this in the US.

What about Europe then? If the plans of UK government to give legal authority to force both corporate VoIP users as well as individuals to disclose encryption keys, Zfone may face some problems there. However, as things stand today there, Zfone users may be able to use it without facing many problems. Besides, apart from a few countries there, most of Europe will never allow such a law to pass giving governments powers to compel users from disclosing encryption keys. I have always had the feeling that privacy is dearer to Europeans than Americans.

Zimmerman himself says that the software is more specific to corporate VoIP users and the main idea is to protect corporate communications from being eavesdropped.

Anyway, Zfone doesnt work with Skype as it has its own encryption systems. It may just be possible that due to the Zfone factor, users might opt out of Skype. In any case, prices are no problem these days. Everything is near free.

By the way, it would be very interesting to hear your views as well on this.

News via: International Herald Tribune