Pretty good encryption man joins Hush team

Mr Phil Zimmermann, one of the world's leading experts in encryption (the encoding of digital information), has joined Dublin-based secure technologies firm Hush Communications as the company's chief cryptographer.

Mr Zimmermann invented the encrypted e-mail program Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), which has become a global standard in cryptography. Hush Communications, an American company that says it relocated its headquarters to the Republic to avail of its more supportive environment for developing cryptography products, produces a leading commercial encrypted e-mail product and offers free, web-based encrypted e-mail.

Mr Zimmermann joins Hush from security industry giant Network Associates, which acquired his company, Pretty Good Privacy, three years ago. "Hush is doing interesting things with a different approach," said Mr Zimmermann, who will continue to be based in Northern California.

He is particularly interested in Hush's server- rather than PC-based approach to encrypted e-mail, which allows people to access their encrypted e-mail account from any computer. Mr Zimmermann also said he liked Hush's determination to make the encryption process invisible to the user.

The complexity of using so-called public key encryption - which utilises a public and a private key to encode and decode information - is considered a major reason why consumers and businesses have avoided using encryption.

Hushmail stores both encryption keys on a secure server and the encoding process is done automatically by a web browser-based Java "applet", or small application.

"[Hushmail] is easily used by ordinary people who can sit down in a cybercafe and access their e-mail," said Mr Zimmermann. PGP was created to provide free encryption for individuals, and Mr Zimmermann is a well-known privacy advocate who would like to see encryption widely adopted by email users.

"What's missing [with encryption] is usability. It's way too complicated to the average user to deal with certificates and keys," said Hush chief executive Mr Jon Matonis.

According to Mr Matonis, Hush is in the process of incorporating the PGP standard, called OpenPGP, into its encryption products. "Phil will have a quality assurance role, to make sure the next release of our products interprets that OpenPGP standard correctly," he said.

Hush intends to expand its products into the e-commerce market. The same server-based technology will also make online transactions secure, Mr Matonis said, with encryption undertaken behind the scenes. He said Hush, which currently has 55 employees in five offices worldwide, will go after the same market as larger rivals Baltimore Technologies, Verisign, Entrust and other leading encryption firms.

Hush moved to Dublin two years ago when the US had strict laws regarding the development and sale of encryption products. The company has no US developers, as they were legally barred from creating strong encryption products for foreign markets. While US laws have eased somewhat, Hush still employs eight law firms to review company developments.

Mr Matonis said Hush had a policy of providing its products free to human rights and privacy groups. It partnered British group Cyber Rights and Cyber Liberties to provide Hushmail to Britons wishing to encrypt email, after Britain passed its Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act last year, which restricts the use of encryption.

Mr Zimmermann is the recipient of several human rights and computing awards.

PGP was originally designed to help global human rights organisations that needed a way of communicating without endangering activists. During a three-year trial, the US government tried to bar Mr Zimmermann from offering PGP freely over the Internet, but ultimately lost the case.