Her plight reflects a larger problem with e-mail security. Fewer than 10 million people use PGP, the most popular method for encrypting e-mail. That's out of a worldwide Internet population approaching 400 million. There needs to be more consciousness raised about privacy, but ease of use certainly has been a factor. Zimmermann said PGP has become simpler.
Users now control it with mouse clicks whereas early versions required typing in commands.
But Zimmermann acknowledged that more could be done. He recently joined Hush Communications Corp. in Dublin, which is trying to simplify PGP by moving the entire process to the Web. Sending e-mail unencrypted is inherently insecure. Network administrators at Internet service providers and employers can read messages at one of several transit points. The FBI has deployed Carnivore to scan e-mail traffic, and hackers can use software initially designed for network administrators to diagnose Internet problems.