Philip R.

Zimmermann: Creator of Pretty Good Privacy

Jeff Pulver interviews another one of the extraordinary, far-sighted individuals whose efforts have made possible today’s VoIP industry.

Born on February 12, 1954, in Camden, N.J., Philip “Phil” R. Zimmermann has dem- onstrated a long-running ability to combine politics and technology. Living in Boulder, Colo., in the 1980s, Zimmerman worked during the day as a software engineer while pulling double-duty as a military policy analyst for the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. From those efforts, he saw the need to develop an e-mail software encryption package as a means to protect human-rights efforts overseas and for protecting grassroots political organizations at home.

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) was published for free on the Internet in 1991, challenging the U.S. government’s export restrictions on cryptography. Zimmermann became the target of a three-year criminal investigation, as the government held that U.S. export restrictions for cryptographic software were violated when PGP spread overseas. The case quickly became a cause célèbre within the Internet community, grabbing the attention of the mainstream press and rallying support for Zimmermann. PGP became synonymous with “secure e-mail” and continues to be used today.

After the government dropped its case in early 1996, Zimmermann founded PGP Inc. In December 1997, PGP Inc. was acquired by Network Associates Inc. (NAI). Zimmermann stayed on at NAI for three years as Senior Fellow. In August 2002, PGP was acquired from NAI by a new company called PGP Corporation, where Zimmermann now serves as a special advisor and consultant. Zimmermann currently is consulting for a number of companies and industry organizations on matters cryptographic and is also a Fellow at the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.

Zimmermann received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Florida Atlantic University in 1978. He is a member of the International Association of Cryptologic Research, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the League for Programming Freedom. He served on the Roundtable on Scientific Communication and National Security, a collaborative project of The National Academies and The Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is Chairman of the OpenPGP Alliance, serves on the Board of Directors for Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and is on the Advisory Boards for Santa Clara University’s Computer Engineering Department, Anonymizer.com, Hush Communications, Debix, and Qualys. Needless to say, Zimmerman has received numerous awards for his pioneering work in cryptography, including the 1995 Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, and a spot on the Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum Wall of Fame.