Why he is being prosecuted for writing encryption software when PGP is so popular?
Commercial companies are selling the same thing! A: Government wants to impose escrowed-key standards, so they can, with a bit of paperwork, easily monitor any electronic communication. The government prefers encryption they can access through a “back door”. Citizens (including the engineering and computer community) want public encryption key standards. Although the government can decrypt all but the largest key sizes, the computer power required makes broadband interception and decryption difficult. Two leaders in promoting public encryption keys are Phil Zimmermann and RSA Data Security Inc., in Redwood City, CA. RSA has formed many chip and system-level partnerships for its efficient RSA encryption algorithms, based on the work of Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Len Adleman. Phil Zimmermann created the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software package, which is popular in the online community, but annoying to both RSA and the federal government. The government, in an effort to discourage the
