My office looked like a mad scientist's den, with wires and cables erupting out of various telephones and computers. Phil Zimmermann, creator of the file-encryption program Pretty Good Privacy (see Wired 1.6, page 25), and I were installing PGPfone, his voice-encryption program that's about to be given away as freeware for the Macintosh.
PGPfone is relatively easy to use - your basic point-and-click Mac interface. Phil and I talked from Colorado and Maryland, respectively, speaking through the microphone in a PowerBook 540c. It wasn't as noise-free as a telephone, but it was clear enough for prime time, given that our voices - compressed and encrypted on the fly - were being rendered untappable.
Why is Zimmermann giving away voice-crypto when the feds are still dangling an indictment over his head? "Because it's still legal for Americans to hold a private conversation," he says. "And because I'm a cryptographer. This is what I do."
ELECTRIC WORD
PGPfone: Zimmermann's Second Gift to the Net
