The NSA's Prism must be countered with public policy, says crypto guru Phil Zimmermann
The National Security Agency's Prism surveillance system is a dangerous hostage to fortune that must be countered using public policy and not simply clever security technologies alone, privacy campaigner and encryption luminary Phil Zimmermann has argued.
It's an unexpected position for a man whose new company, Silent Circle, sells possibly the single most credible anti-surveillance service on the market not to mention writing his own chapter in the history books by inventing the legendary Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption software in the early 1990s.
It's also fair to say that the Prism controversy might be good for Silent Circle's business model, a sort of gigantic imaginary neon sign saying 'we told you so'. "The surge of interest we've had over the last 10 days is huge," admits Zimmermann during a phone call that would doubtless be simple for a system like Prism to monitor. In Zimmermann's case, phone taps aren't required because he'll tell you what he thinks about the surveillance era before you even ask.
