Alan Dawson, a writer living in Thailand, says rebels opposing the regime in neighboring Burma are using PGP to encrypt information sent among rebel groups. But investigators say PGP and other encryption systems aid crime. Mr. Bidzos of RSA says that he has had several calls from police in the Miami area asking for help in decrypting information on computers seized in drug raids. He says the encryption is unbreakable. Mr. Zimmermann says he is disturbed by criminal use of encryption, but thinks the benefit of providing electronic privacy to everyone outweighs the costs.
Encryption also raises some eyebrows inside corporations.
Mr. Bass, the Washington lawyer, notes that most companies assert the right to read employees' e-mail, since it is composed on their computers and travels their networks. Without e-mail encryption, widespread surveillance would be easier. In fact, Mr. Zimmermann is currently seeking funding for a project to create a phone that uses a personal computer equipped with a microphone and a speaker, to encrypt voice conversations just as PGP encrypts data exchanges. Mr. Zimmermann has been suspicious of the government for a long time. After growing up in Boca Raton, Fla., where a children's book on secret writing first interested him in codes, he moved to Boulder in 1978 and worked as a computer engineer.