PGP inventor to announce crypto-based VoIP security solution

My colleague Joris Evers reports that tomorrow, Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) e-mail encryption program inventor Phil Zimmermann will make a Pretty Grand Pronouncement tomorrow.

Apparently, Zimmermann will reveal an as-yet unnamed prototype of an Internet telephony application that encrypts calls to thwart eavesdropping.

"I am revealing this now because I want to help shape the direction of secure VoIP," Zimmermann tells Evers.

Apparently, Zimmermann's solution wil not use the Public Key Infrastructure, which provides digital certificates to each party. Despite PKI's effectiveness, it is seen by some as laborious to set up.

Zimmermann says he will set up a business to sell products based on his solution. The solution is based on cryptography added to the open-source Shtoom VoIP client- one which Zimmermann says "still has some bugs."