Pretty Good Privacy Inventor Is Working on More Secure Net Phones

The man who invented the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is working on a similar project for Internet phones.

Phil Zimmerman unveiled a prototype of his newest invention at Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas. According to Zimmerman, the prototype, called "zfone," should be available online at the end of August, for evaluation purposes.

However, the program will be ready for broad deployment in about 12 months. Right now most Internet-phone calls are sent unscrambled, which means that it's possible for anyone to intercept the traffic. Zimmerman's prototype is working in the same way as any encryption program.

Zfone scrambles the data until it reaches its destination. The recipient must be running a program using the same protocols

"If you want to have an encrypted call, then you have to call someone running the same software at the other end," Zimmermann said before the presentation. "Eventually, I'm hoping companies that make VoIP phones will incorporate this protocol into their phones."

Zimmermann said he planned to start a company to sell his software and his partners in the new venture include VOIP pioneer Jeffrey Pulver and former U.S. counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke.

"I am revealing this now because I want to help shape the direction of secure VoIP," Zimmermann said in an interview.

VoIP is increasingly popular because it is cheaper than traditional phone service and in some cases free. According to Gartner Within until 2007, 97 percent of new phone systems installed in North America will be VoIP-based or will use a combination of traditional and VoIP technology.

Cisco claims to have sold some 5 million VoIP phones to customers throughout the world.