PGP author took up the VoIP cryptographic security.
Well-known cryptographer Phil Zimmerman created Zfone software and a reliable protocol for encrypting VoIP traffic. This week, he announced the first licensing agreement. Crypto-defense VoIP went to the masses.
Zfone freeware is unique in that it can encrypt voice information without using any keys or authentication servers. Encoding takes place directly on the user's personal computer. All that is required is to simultaneously run the VoIP client on the SIP protocol and the Zfone program itself. Everything else will be done automatically.
In terms of ease of use, Zfone is absolutely not inferior to Zimmerman’s other unique development, namely, the well-known PGP program. Created over ten years ago, the program PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) also appeared as a simple and reliable utility for one task: cryptographic protection of email. Very soon, it became the de facto standard in the field of consumer cryptography, and Zimmerman himself was persecuted by American intelligence services for “illegal export of cryptographic technologies”. By the way, at about the same time, Zimmerman released a program for encrypting telephone conversations PGPfone, but it remained unknown to the general public.
Zfone intercepts VoIP traffic on the user's computer and “wraps” it in another protection layer, namely in its own transport protocol ZRTP , also developed by Zimmerman. Now this protocol is being considered for adoption as an official standard. The American special services, as always, try to prevent this. They advocate such standards of cryptographic protection, under which the protocol will leave a “loophole” for the special services, so that they can, if necessary, listen to any subscriber.
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Zimmerman and all sane cryptographers, of course, oppose. Indeed, in this case, the cryptographic protection is full of holes by definition, that is, initially. Strangely enough, it is the intelligence services that keep the worst information the most important (for example, laptops lose their enviable regularity), so that the “keys” to the private information of ordinary citizens can easily end up in the hands of intruders, which has happened many times. Therefore, Zfone reliably protects traffic from one computer to another and eliminates any possibility of connecting from the outside.
The beta version of Zfone was released in March 2006 under OS X, Windows and Linux. It is compatible with various VoIP clients on the SIP protocol, such as Gizmo and Free World Dialup .
Speaking at the largest hacker conference Defcon, the American cryptographer made an important announcement. He announced the conclusion of the first licensing agreement for his program. Borderware, a Canadian manufacturer of firewalls, gateways and other network equipment, has licensed Zfone for SIPassure .
The cryptographic protection of VoIP traffic is a very important task, because the Internet channels are much less secure than traditional telephone networks. In fact, on the Internet you can connect to other conversations and wiretap in a few mouse clicks (there are already such programs).
At the same time, the market for VoIP equipment is growing rapidly. Cisco has already sold millions of VoIP phones, and Gartner predicts that in four years, 30% of Americans will use only VoIP and mobile communications.
The most popular program for VoIP-telenphony Skype, it seems, uses cryptographic protection. Representatives of the company even told about it at one of the hacker conferences ( presentation in PDF ), but experts are extremely skeptical about such proprietary “protection”, because the source codes of the algorithms are kept secret. The reason for the secrecy may be the lack of reliability of the algorithms or the presence of "loopholes", as mentioned above.
Zfone freeware is unique in that it can encrypt voice information without using any keys or authentication servers. Encoding takes place directly on the user's personal computer. All that is required is to simultaneously run the VoIP client on the SIP protocol and the Zfone program itself. Everything else will be done automatically.
In terms of ease of use, Zfone is absolutely not inferior to Zimmerman’s other unique development, namely, the well-known PGP program. Created over ten years ago, the program PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) also appeared as a simple and reliable utility for one task: cryptographic protection of email. Very soon, it became the de facto standard in the field of consumer cryptography, and Zimmerman himself was persecuted by American intelligence services for “illegal export of cryptographic technologies”. By the way, at about the same time, Zimmerman released a program for encrypting telephone conversations PGPfone, but it remained unknown to the general public.
Zfone intercepts VoIP traffic on the user's computer and “wraps” it in another protection layer, namely in its own transport protocol ZRTP , also developed by Zimmerman. Now this protocol is being considered for adoption as an official standard. The American special services, as always, try to prevent this. They advocate such standards of cryptographic protection, under which the protocol will leave a “loophole” for the special services, so that they can, if necessary, listen to any subscriber.
')
Zimmerman and all sane cryptographers, of course, oppose. Indeed, in this case, the cryptographic protection is full of holes by definition, that is, initially. Strangely enough, it is the intelligence services that keep the worst information the most important (for example, laptops lose their enviable regularity), so that the “keys” to the private information of ordinary citizens can easily end up in the hands of intruders, which has happened many times. Therefore, Zfone reliably protects traffic from one computer to another and eliminates any possibility of connecting from the outside.
The beta version of Zfone was released in March 2006 under OS X, Windows and Linux. It is compatible with various VoIP clients on the SIP protocol, such as Gizmo and Free World Dialup .
Speaking at the largest hacker conference Defcon, the American cryptographer made an important announcement. He announced the conclusion of the first licensing agreement for his program. Borderware, a Canadian manufacturer of firewalls, gateways and other network equipment, has licensed Zfone for SIPassure .
The cryptographic protection of VoIP traffic is a very important task, because the Internet channels are much less secure than traditional telephone networks. In fact, on the Internet you can connect to other conversations and wiretap in a few mouse clicks (there are already such programs).
At the same time, the market for VoIP equipment is growing rapidly. Cisco has already sold millions of VoIP phones, and Gartner predicts that in four years, 30% of Americans will use only VoIP and mobile communications.
The most popular program for VoIP-telenphony Skype, it seems, uses cryptographic protection. Representatives of the company even told about it at one of the hacker conferences ( presentation in PDF ), but experts are extremely skeptical about such proprietary “protection”, because the source codes of the algorithms are kept secret. The reason for the secrecy may be the lack of reliability of the algorithms or the presence of "loopholes", as mentioned above.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/4292/
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