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Encryption Security

Phil Zimmermann Talk Summary And Audio 82

Posted by Hemos from the good-listening dept.
Ames Cornish writes "Philip Zimmermann, the creator of PGP, spoke on Security and Privacy to a standing-room-only crowd in San Francisco on July 31st. There is a short summary and audio recording of the event on the Software Development Forum site. Phil talked about Dmitry Sklyarov, Nicodemo Scarfo, Phil's own experience as the victim of US government persecution, and how automatic weapons were involved in the attempt to get export permission for PGP." The MP3 is at the bottom of the page.
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Phil Zimmermann Talk Summary And Audio More

Phil Zimmermann Talk Summary And Audio

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  • The summary (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Lumpish Scholar ( 17107 )
    (Grabbed before the inevitable Slashdot effect.)

    At the inaugural Internet Security and Privacy event, Philip Zimmermann, the creator of the world's most popular email encryption software, Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), spoke to a standing-room-only audience in San Francisco. A decade ago, the Federal government accused Phil of violating the Arms Export Control Act for munitions trafficking. The government claimed that U.S. national security was jeopardized when PGP was spread around the world as free encryption software. The investigation of Phil Zimmermann continued for three years. The feds eventually dropped their case.

    Phil spoke about the current Dmitry Sklyarov case. Dmitry is a Russian programmer who was thrown in jail by the federal government at the behest of Adobe. Adobe claims that software Dmitry created for his employer in Russia violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). After meetings with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Adobe had a change of heart and asked the feds to drop criminal charges against Dmitry. Phil characterized criminal law as a "blunt instrument" when used to enforce encryption software policies. Phil also related to the terror of having the federal government threaten you with incarceration for writing a piece of code.

    Phil went on to discuss another current criminal case, that against Nicodemo S. Scarfo, in which the FBI used electronic eavesdropping to access data which Mr. Scarfo had reportedly encrypted with PGP. While the FBI had a search warrant, Phil believes law enforcement should be held to the higher wire-tap standards before permitting on-going electronic surveillance.

    Phil also had a number of stories to tell about the development of PGP and his efforts to get permission to export that software. Only one episode involved the brandishing of automatic weapons in a bank building, however.
  • Yeah, but was it a pansy-ass MAC-11, or was it a true crew-served heavy automatic weapon like a M2 Browning or Mk19?

    Big difference.

  • "PGP" for Linux (Score:2, Informative)

    by yukonbob ( 410399 )
    There's an article [linuxjournal.com] (one of two) on the Linux Journal website [linuxjournal.com] about GNU Privacy Guard [gnupg.org] for PGP functionality for us *NIX folks.

    -yb
  • I wonder if Mr. Zimmermann will mind if the MP3 of this particular speech is sent to Napster (or Gnutella, whatever) and distributed there.



    In any case, let's be glad he doesn't sing on it, or else the RIAA would come after him, too.

  • People who are concerned about the UN taking over their countries or usurping the authority of the country should also be pointing their concern towards the US's mega corporations. As free enterprise as I am, the bigger businesses seem to own major portions of some countries and specifically major portions of their governments.

    Maybe it's time to start throttling campaign funding from corporations, as much as that's a 1st amendment issue as well.

    There has to be a middle ground here.

    DanH
  • It seems like an awful lot of Law Enforcement officials have no interest in seeing justice done. This would seem a radical thing to say because of the business they are in.Many cases have been brought forward where a person might be able to prove themselves innocent based on DNA tests. The friends on family of the jailed person are willing to pay for the test.

    and what is the response?

    "We know that they are guilty because they were convicted of the crime, and we have no interest in helping a guilty man go free"

    I have seen this on the news several times over the past few months. You can see the logic of it all. It is blind and arbitrary conviction to "principles" unencumbered by the thought process.

    Now we transfer this to other areas of Law enforcement, and we can see how the lack of education and sheer strupidity can lead to the legal situations we face in the technology arena.

    Yes, some of these people are in fact stupid, and to fix the problem would take several years of experience and education that you happen to have, but they don't.

    - - -
    Radio Free Nation [radiofreenation.com]
    is a news site based on Slash Code
    "If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
    - - -

    • Law Enforcement officials are NOT in the business of justice. They are in the business of law enforcement. The stupidity or inapplicability of the law doesn't enter the picture.

      Make no mistake, the metrics they work under have only to do with cases 'cleared' by arrest and with conviction rates (percentages).
      • Law Enforcement officials are NOT in the business of justice. They are in the business of law enforcement. The stupidity or inapplicability of the law doesn't enter the picture.

        This is MOST informative.

        Unfortunately this probably IS the reason why it is all messed up.

        Law Enforcement without justice is arbitrary, and is a greased skid to dictatorship (pick you favorite)

        It is a blind spot that is likely the achilles heal of our world. This is _exactly_ what is going on with the DCMA, the MPAA, the RIAA, etc.

        Law Enforcement, not Justice.

  • OK, PGP is good software, it's a revolution, blah blah blah. All true. No questions.

    It's also true that the US government investigated Phil Zimmerman quite extensively, and considered what to do about him. This went on several years.

    However unless things have changed since I last got up to speed on things, Zimmerman was never prosecuted. No charges were laid, no time was served, no record was created. Phil is and always has been a free man without a criminal record (at least as a result of PGP). Is this wrong? Have things changed?

    I'm not saying that he didn't go through a nasty few years, and that it was all stupid, but he shouldn't be treated like a saint. For that matter, neither should his side of the story be taken entirely at face value. Remember, there _is_ another side, even if the government won't/can't talk about it.
    • I'll bite. I've followed the Phil Zimmerman story for several years with some interest.

      I'll summarise the other side of the story for you: the NSA and FBI don't want anyone to be in possession of cryptographic technology because it makes it harder to spy on U.S. citizens. They have consistently lied to congress to keep bad laws and regulations on the books. They have consistently harassed good citizens who are trying to get the useless laws and regulations changed.

      The result? When I, a United States citizen currently residing in New Zealand want to download a copy of CFS (cryptographic filesystem) I can't, because of U.S. export restrictions (!).

      Phil Zimmerman and people like him have made a slight dent in the stupidity, but it's not enough. Until the U.S. government lets go of its desire to spy on its own citizens, things will remain bad. In the meantime, non-US countries will be on the forefront of secure communications technology, because they're allowed to export their software.
    • >>Remember, there _is_ another side, even if the government won't/can't talk about it.

      It's nice to be even handed and try to understand both sides of the argument.

      I won't deny that the government had reasons for trying to stop wide spread encryption. Reasons that it might not want to talk about.

      But those reasons make me want encryption even more. The more I try to understand why the government wanted to read my email the less I like it. :P

  • Phil's Phone (Score:3, Funny)

    by kilgore_47 ( 262118 ) <kilgore_47 AT yahoo DOT com> on Wednesday August 22, 2001 @07:31PM (#2205981) Homepage Journal
    Phil is a funny guy. Take for example the way he lists his phone number [philzimmermann.com] online.
  • My memory of the talk at SDForum...

    The PGP guys were getting around export restrictions by printing the code on paper, which they distributed at a crypto group meeting, with the old nudge nudge wink wink type of intention (somebody sent it overseas? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you). So here they are, purposefully handing it out in this very public forum, as a CYOA move trying to legitimize the distribution. And later in the meeting, some guy pops up with a big duffel bag, and announces the gun SIG will be meeting next week for some shooting or something, and unzips the bag and pulls out some kind of automatic rifle, mortifying Phil and crew. Better yet, the meeting was being held on the 15th floor of a bank, so if the guy had been caught walking into the building, well, you do the math... Would've been wonderful to be a fly on the wall that day...
    • The PGP guys were getting around export restrictions by printing the code on paper, which they distributed at a crypto group meeting, with the old nudge nudge wink wink type of intention (somebody sent it overseas? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you).

      My understanding (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) is that, at the time, crypto laws prevented PGP source code being exported on a floppy disk, but printed out in a book, it was protected by the first amendment. So you had the strange situation that carrying a floppy disk of the PGP source code out of the country was illegal, but carrying a book out of the country containing the source was perfectly legal. So there was no "nudge nudge wink wink" about it. Go figure.

  • Has a nice history of PGP.

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