Phil Zimmerman
and the PGP
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)
Presented by Rhonda Charles
Background on Phil

Studied physics and computer
science at Florida Atlantic University
in the mid 1970’s

Political events during 1980’s made
him less interested in technology and
more worried about nuclear war.

Phil and family became antinuclear
activists.

After threat subsided in 1988, his
focus shifted to digital revolution and
necessity for encryption.
Phil still a Political Activist

“Cryptography used to be an obscure
science, of little relevance to everyday life.
Historically, it always had a special role in the
military and diplomatic communications. But
in the Information Age, cryptography is
about political power and in particular,
about the power relationship between a
government and its people.”
Phil’s Ideals concerning
Privacy

“Today, we live in a new world that has had two major
breakthroughs that have an impact on this state of affairs.
The first is the coming of the personal computer and the
information age…”
cheap ubiquitous personal computers, modems,
FAX machines, the Internet, E-mail, the World- Wide Web,
digital cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs),
wireless digital networks, ISDN, cable TV,
and the data superhighway.

Information revolution = global economy

Renaissance in electronic digital communication = erosion
of our privacy

In past, if government wanted to violate privacy of
citizens, the monitoring process was very Labor
intensive and impractical on large scale.= hook fishing

Now, with electronic mail replacing conventional paper
mail, interception of messages (scanning for keywords)
is very easy and can be done on a grand scale.= driftnet
fishing

Government could watch movement of political
opposition, financial transactions, every communication,
email and phone call.

This threatens freedom and democracy.

The second breakthrough is public-key cryptography.
This allows people to communicate securely
and conveniently with people they've never
met, with no prior exchange of keys over
secure channels.

This breakthrough + trappings of information technology
= great masses can use cryptology.

provides digital signatures to authenticate transactions
and messages.
What is the PGP?


An email encryption software package
Human rights tool
Uses RSA for key management and digital signatures
+
Uses the IDEA cipher for bulk data encryption
+
Uses MD5 for secure one way hash digital signature.
+
Compresses data before encryption using a ZIP algorithm.



Fast program (Speed up RSA)
User friendly interface
Efficient enough to run on moderately sized personal
computer.
How PGP Works
Alice looks up Bob’s RSA public key
and uses it to encrypt IDEA key
Alice encrypts message with IDEA
cipher
Alice sends message(2 componentsIDEA enciphered message + RSA
enciphered IDEA key)
Additional Features:
• Key generation by wiggling
mouse which induces a
random factor in assigning
prime numbers.
•Facility for digital signatures
to ensure authorship
Advantages:
Bob uses RSA private key to decrypt
IDEA key
Bob uses IDEA key to decrypt
message
•Faster than RSA alone
•PGP made so that user
does not have to deal with
“nuts and bolts”.
Phil’s Problems

Senate Bill 266, 1991 anti-crime bill which was
contested and only a temporary reprieve.

Phil asked friend to post PGP software on Usenet
Bulletin Board as free internet download in June 1991
before it became illegal to do so.

RSA software at heart of PGP is patented and required
license for use.

US government accused Zimmerman of being arms
dealer in 1993.
The Court Case

3 year long case that started after investigation of
accusation of copyright infringement.

State suggested that the US export restrictions for
cryptographic software were violated when PGP
spread worldwide.
•
Accused of supplying hostile nations and terrorists with
tools to evade authority of US government.
• “Head on conflict between 1st amendment right of
free expression and legal doctrine that an idea
can be an export”
The Case brought up 2 sides of a
debate concerning
cryptography
The case presented by the
civil libertarians and
supporters of distribution of
encryption software
The case presented by the
government agencies and
opposition of the use of
widespread encryption
Civil Activists


Supporters include creators of cryptography systems
and large corporations.
To protect financial transactions and stored business
accounts and customer information.

Fundamental right to privacy for digital communications.

Police able to spy on and exploit average citizen without
cryptography.

Cite examples of wiretapping of figures like Martin Luther
King Jr.
Letters from Supporters

“We are part of a network of not-for-profit agencies, working among other things for human
rights in the Balkans. Our various offices have been raided by various police forces looking
for evidence of spying or subversive activities. Our mail has been regularly tampered with
and our office in Romania has a constant wiretap. In every instance PGP has allowed us to
communicate and protect our files from any attempt to gain access to our material
…Without PGP we would not be able to function and protect our client group. Thanks
to PGP I can sleep at night knowing that no amount of prying will compromise our clients.”

“When you came to Guatemala with me in January, 1999, you met some of the human
rights activists who had been using PGP to keep their sensitive data safe…PGP made
possible much faster reactions and better analysis in the central office, which in some
cases probably saved the lives of people on behalf of whom MINUGUA intervened.”

“One case where you could highlight the value of PGP to "Good" citizens, we were working
with a young woman who was being pursued by Islamic extremists. She was an ethnic
Muslim from Albania who had converted to Christianity and as a result had been attacked,
raped and threatened persistently with further attack. We were helping to protect her from
further attack by hiding her in Hungary, and eventually we helped her travel to Holland,
while in Holland she sought asylum, which was granted…weeks before she was granted
asylum, two armed men raided our office in Hungary looking for her, they tried to bring up
files on our computers but were prevented from accessing her files by PGP. They took
copies of the files that they believed related to her, so any simple password or ordinary
encryption would eventually have been overcome. They were prepared to take the whole
computer if necessary so the only real line of defence was PGP.”
Government Agencies


Include NSA, FBI and CIA
Monitoring cryptography to maintain law and order.

Claim that encryption benefits Four Horsemen of the
Infocalypse.

Monitoring is useful in convicting perpetrators.

Cite examples of Cali Cartel (USA), Aum Shinrikyo (Tokyo)
as hostile groups using strong cryptography.

Cite that terrorists used GPS receivers to help guide
hijacked aircrafts to targets in 9/11.
Results…

The Zimmerman Case was
dropped in early 1996 and made
PGP even more popular.

RSA granted license to PGP.
PGP Inc. founded in 1996. Later
sold to Network Associates in
1997.

Supported by major institutions
such as MIT press (published
600 page PGP book).
Results

Phil Zimmerman has been
awarded many technical and
humanitarian merits since PGP
publication.
2000- InfoWorld Top 10 Innovators in Ebusiness
1995 Chrysler Award for Innovation in
Design
1999 -Louis Brandeis Award from
Privacy International

Movies such as Mercury Rising
and Enemy of the State gained a
following, especially in conspiracy
The G-men all are cryin'
And tearin' out their hair,
'Cause there's a new cryptography
That's shown up everywhere.
Nobody can break it,
However good they be.
Everybody's PC got the PGP. .
It guarantees who's callin‘
And just who gets the call.
If you ain't got your code-phrase,
You can't get in at all.
Oh, there ain't nothin' like it
To keep your privacy.
Half the world's computers got the PGP. .
There's no way to crack it,
Not if you take a year.
All the spooks & wiretappers
Are cryin' in their beers.
They can't spy on E-mail
Here or oversea
When every home computer's got the
PGP. .
Bless the man who made it,
And pray that he ain't dead.
He could've made a million
If he'd sold it to the feds, But he was hot
for freedom;
He gave it out for free. Now every
common citizen's got PGP. .
So go say what you want to,
Of love or war or hate,
Kinky sex, or dirty words,
Or overthrow the state.
Nobody can stop you.
Speech is really free
When everybody's PC got the PGP.
THE END
Thank you