Phil Zimmermann

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Phil Zimmermann bigraphy, stories - Creator of PGP data encryption software. Co-founder of Silent Circle.

Phil Zimmermann : biography

12 February 1954 –

Philip R. "Phil" Zimmermann, Jr. (born February 12, 1954) is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone. Zimmermann is currently the President and co-founder of the global encrypted communications firm, Silent Circle.

Awards and other recognition

Zimmermann has received numerous technical and humanitarian awards for his pioneering work in cryptography:

  • In 2012, Zimmermann was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society., Internet Hall of Fame website. Last accessed April 24, 2012
  • In 2008, PC World named Zimmermann one of the of the last 50 years.
  • In 2006, eWeek ranked PGP 9th in the .
  • In 2003, Reason named him a "Hero of Freedom"

Reason, December 2003 Retrieved April 10, 2007

  • In 2001, Zimmermann was inducted into the .
  • In 2000, InfoWorld named him one of the .
  • In 1999, he received the Louis Brandeis Award from Privacy International.
  • In 1998, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Secure Computing Magazine.
  • In 1996, he received the Norbert Wiener Award for Social and Professional Responsibility for promoting the responsible use of technology.
  • In 1995, he received the Chrysler Design Award for Innovation, and the Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
  • In 1995, Newsweek also named Zimmermann one of the "Net 50", the 50 most influential people on the Internet.

Simon Singh’s The Code Book devotes an entire chapter to Zimmermann and PGP.

PGP

In 1991, he wrote the popular Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) program, and made it available (together with its source code) through public FTP for download, the first widely available program implementing public-key cryptography. Shortly thereafter, it became available overseas via the Internet, though Zimmermann has said he had no part in its distribution outside the US.

The very first version of PGP included an encryption algorithm, BassOmatic, developed by Zimmermann.

Criminal investigation

After a report from RSA Data Security, Inc., who were in a licensing dispute with regard to use of the RSA algorithm in PGP, the United States Customs Service started a criminal investigation of Zimmermann, for allegedly violating the Arms Export Control Act. The United States Government had long regarded cryptographic software as a munition, and thus subject to arms trafficking export controls. At that time, the boundary between permitted ("low-strength") cryptography and impermissible ("high-strength") cryptography placed PGP well on the too-strong-to-export side (this boundary has since been relaxed). The investigation lasted three years, but was finally dropped without filing charges.

After the government dropped its case without indictment in early 1996, Zimmermann founded PGP Inc. and released an updated version of PGP and some additional related products. That company was acquired by Network Associates (NAI) in December 1997, and Zimmermann stayed on for three years as a Senior Fellow. NAI decided to drop the product line and in 2002, PGP was acquired from NAI by a new company called PGP Corporation. Zimmermann served as a special advisor and consultant to that firm until Symantec acquired PGP Corporation in 2010. Zimmermann is also a fellow at the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. He was a principal designer of the cryptographic key agreement protocol (the "association model") for the Wireless USB standard.

Along with Mike Janke he created Silent Circlehttps://silentcircle.com/web/about/

Publications

The Official PGP User’s Guide, MIT Press, 1995

PGP Source Code and Internals, MIT Press, 1995

Background

He was born in Camden, New Jersey. His father was a concrete mixer truck driver. Zimmermann received a B.S. degree in computer science from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida in 1978, and thereafter moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.