How easy is it for the average internet user to make a phone call secure enough to frustrate the NSA's extrajudicial surveillance program?...

By Ryan Singel| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Apr, 03, 2006
Wired News took Phil Zimmermann's newest encryption software, Zfone, for a test drive and found it's actually quite easy, even if the program is still in beta.

Zimmermann, the man who released the PGP e-mail encryption program to the world in 1991 -- only to face an abortive criminal prosecution from the government -- has been trying for 10 years to give the world easy-to-use software to cloak internet phone calls.

On March 14, Zimmermann released a beta version of the widely anticipated Zfone. The software is currently available only for OS X (Tiger) and Linux, though a Windows version is due in April.

The open-source software manages cryptographic handshakes invisibly, and encrypts and decrypts voice calls as the traffic leaves and enters the computer. Operation is simple, and users don't have to agree in advance on an encryption key or type out long passcodes to make it work.

Would-be beta testers must provide Zimmermann with an e-mail address. That seems an odd requirement for a privacy product, but the process itself was painless, and an e-mail with a download code arrived immediately.