Phil Zimmermann

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Phil Zimmermann

Philip R. Zimmermann (* 12. February 1954 in Camden , New Jersey ) is the creator and inventor of e-mail - encryption software Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). He is the co-founder and chief developer of Silent Circle , an encrypted communications company.

Zimmermann studied computer science at Florida Atlantic University and then worked as a software developer in Boulder, Colorado . With his program PGP he was the first to make asymmetric cryptography (also known as public key cryptography) easily accessible as software to the general public. This led the US customs authorities to make it the target of a three-year investigation because the government believed that US export restrictions for cryptographic software had been violated when PGP began its triumphant advance in 1991 after being released as freeware on the Internet competed around the world. After the government dropped the case in early 1996 without charge, Zimmermann founded PGP Inc., which was acquired in December 1997 by Network Associates Inc. (NAI), which in turn was acquired by the listed Symantec Corporation in 2010. Zimmermann stayed with NAI as a Senior Fellow for three years after the sale . In 2002, PGP was bought from NAI by a new company called PGP Corporation , where Zimmermann now acts as a specialist consultant. Zimmermann is a Fellow of the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.

In March 2006 he presented the beta version of a newly developed software called Zfone for the encryption of VoIP calls.

In May 2015 Zimmermann moved with his company Silent Circle from the USA to Le Grand-Saconnex , a suburb of Geneva in Switzerland . The reason he cited privacy concerns from the global surveillance and espionage affair .

Quotes

  • If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy. (Eng .: "If privacy is forbidden by law, only outlaws have privacy.")
  • Privacy is a right like any other. You have to exercise it or risk losing it. (Eng .: "Privacy is a right like any other. You have to claim it or you risk losing it.")
  • I cannot decrypt this on my iphone. Please send this to me again, as plaintext. (German: "I can't decrypt it on my iPhone. Please send it to me again in plain text.")

swell

  1. ↑ Extract from the commercial register: Silent Circle SA on Moneyhouse
  2. ↑ https://futurezone.at/digital-life/pgp-erfinder-zimmermann-sehen-in-die-schweiz/132.673.882
  3. ↑ The encryption icon turns its back on the USA. In: sueddeutsche.de. May 26, 2015, accessed July 3, 2018 .
  4. ↑ https://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/WhyIWrotePGP.html
  5. ↑ http://www.cybersociology.com/files/7_bigbrotheronline.html
  6. ↑ Sean Gallagher: In spectacular fail, Adobe security team posts private PGP key on blog . In: Ars Technica . ( arstechnica.com [accessed June 15, 2019]).

Web links

Commons : Phil Zimmermann  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Carpenter, Phil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zimmermann, Philip R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American cryptologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Camden , New Jersey