More details on Zimmermann's VOIP encryption scheme

Once upon a time, the U.S. government wanted to limit the strength of encryption schemes in the marketplace so workers in the puzzle palace wouldn't have to try terribly hard to read encrypted electronic transmissions. That was when Phil Zimmermann introduced Pretty Good Privacy, which enabled Average Joes to ensure their communications weren't easily cracked. Zimmermann received a federal investigation for his efforts, and PGP spread across the globe, thwarting the government's aim to keep strong encryption -- and privacy -- out of reach to its citizens.

Now Zimmermann, who has also made a career of being a privacy advocate has unveiled a prototype for something he calls zphone, a product that would encrypt VOIP calls, and protect them from eavesdropping.

On Thursday, as previously reported here, Zimmermann demonstrated his concept at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

He said he expects to make the product available online at the end of August. The VOIP client is based on the Shtoom phone client, with added cryptography according to coverage from ZDNet.

The initial market for the product will likely be to those users of software-based phones, like Skype and others.

For more coverage on this emerging issue, here are links to articles from ZDNet, and PCWorld.

VoIP Magazine Podcast #1

VoIP magazine asked IP Inferno (and yours truly) to help create a podcast on VoIP news! The result has now been posted on the VoIP Magazine website.

Our big premier! A summary of all the news from the week including bravado in the face of VoIP security, analysis of how the Government is handling IP communications, and what could ultimately lead to Avaya's downfall.

Get the Podcast
[MP3] Download the audio (MP3).

Hosts
Bryan Richard and Ted Shelton

Format
31:47, 36.4MB, MP3

Program
0:00 Bryan meet Ted
0:20 Cisco security talk at the Black Hat conference
4:15 Phil Zimmerman's PGP solution for VoIP
9:19 FCC extension of the E911 Deadline
15:19 Broadband Consumer Choice Act of 2005
17:41 The Amazon analogy for Brand X
18:11 Vodaphone blocking calls
19:37 Convergence equals collision
20:03 What went wrong at VocalTec?
23:30 Avaya Q2 Results
27:49 The real problem at Avaya
29:17 Looking ahead to the tradeshow season

LISTEN

Canada Bells riled over VOIP regulation

It's not often you hear about companies wanting the freedom to slash their own prices. But that's the latest from Canada, where phone companies there are decrying a recent decision to regulate the pricing of VOIP offerings by existing telcos.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission took heat from Canada's four largest telecommunications companies (Aliant, Bell Canada, SaskTel and Telus), who are asking the government to reconsider its decision by year's end.

Bell Canada's CEO Michael Sabia was quoted by the Ottawa Business Journal, saying the decision "sets back innovation in our sector, hampers productivity and undermines Canada's hard-won leadership in the communications industry by constraining the very companies best positioned to maintain that leadership. It is simply bad public policy."

Opposing the telcos is the Canadian cable industry, which holds the CRTC's VoIP decision promotes competition in the local residential telephone market while ensuring consumers benefit from lower prices.

In sum, the battleground up north is quite similar to the one we've seen here in the U.S. where telcos squawk about price regulations, and MSOs get big smiles on their faces when telcos are fettered. It's doubtful that any of this is about the consumers, or offering them the most choice. It's ultimately about marketing, and who gets to sell bandwidth to users at the lowest price.

For more reading, see the Globe and Mail's article on this emerging dust-up.

Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act

Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada) and Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) have introduced legislation intended to rewrite the 1996 Telecommunications Act. How the world has changed in the past 10 years.

How many people believed, in 1996, that the phone company would want to broadcast television into our homes over the phone lines? Or that phone calls would be carried over that pesky new-fangled thing, "the Internet?"

Today a 72 page bill was introduced to update legislation to the realities of convergence. The bill eliminates an enormous amount of regulation currently on the books that simply doesn't make sense in the 21st century. In addition it prevents new state and local regulation of satellite services and mobile services. This is all good for consumers.

At the same time the bill establishes "Basic Telephone Service" obligations and, most importantly from an IP Inferno perspective, it guarantees Broadband consumers with access to content and applications (such as VoIP).

Finally, the bill addresses video services -- eliminating state and local licenses and promoting competition.

This is a much needed overhaul of Federal regulation, especially in the light of the Supreme Court's recent "Brand 'X'" ruling. But one item was left out... how to fund the Universal Service Fund.

So will we see passage in our lifetimes? Not without changes, but this is a hopeful step toward the new world where we no longer have "cable" companies and "telephone" companies -- just bandwidth companies.

PGP inventor to unveil VOIP encryption scheme

The old saw goes that there are no second acts in American politics. But the software industry is another story.

Phil Zimmermann, the gentleman who invented Pretty Good Privacy is slated to unveil a prototype for VOIP security. The problem he proposes to solve is how to more easily protect VOIP calls from eavesdropping. Currently, such a system already exists using public key infrastructure to encode calls. But as many know, managing all those digital certificates can be a real timesink. Zimmerman's idea will not use public keys.

What will it use? That's set to be revealed tomorrow at a Las Vegas security industry conference called Black Hat Briefings.

A bit about Zimmermann: Remember those T-Shirts plastered with binary code stating that the wearer had donned a "restricted munition?" That was a response by the Net community to Zimmermann's being a target of a three-year criminal investigation for making the email software-encryption package PGP freely available to the Internet community. The government held that US export restrictions for cryptographic software were violated when PGP spread worldwide.

Now Zimmermann says he's interested in changing the future of how VOIP calls get encrypted, and that he has a working prototype that may still have a few bugs to be ironed out. This should get interesting.

More on this developing story tomorrow. In the meantime, some links to other coverage, and Zimmermann's bio.

E911 Extension Granted

A Vonage representative said today the company has been granted a deadline extension to fulfill its customer notification obligations.

The prior deadline was July 29. Now, Vonage and other VOIP providers like Skype will have until the end of August to notify 100 percent of its estimated 800,000 subscribers before the FCC would begin enforcement actions.

The FCC order requires VOIP providers provide ”enhanced” 911 service, which delivers a caller’s name, telephone number, and physical address directly to the console of the local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) in an emergency. Vonage has notified the bulk of its customers that it uses their registered address, and should they change locations that it is their responsibility to update that address.

Brooke Schultz, spokeswoman for the Edison, NJ-based firm, said today the company had already notified the majority of its subscribers, and said she was hopeful her company would hit the 100 percent mark, or as close to it as possible.

The company has been aggressive about contacting its customers, using email, voicemail, and other outreach efforts. What's being sought is confirmation that its users have read and acknowledge the company's statement on its enhanced 911 service.
Just how far Vonage has to go to reach the rest of its customers in the next month remains unclear, and is typical for much of the industry, which has been quietly hoping for more time to comply with the FCC's order.

A PDF of the FCC's public notice on the issue can be found here.

A Reuters story covering the issue can be found here.