ANNOUNCEMENT: PGPfone Beta 7 Now Available for Download _______________________________________________________ MIT has released Philip Zimmermann's PGPfone 1.0b7 for Macintosh and 1.0b2 for Windows95 or NT. This new secure telephone product is now available for download at the MIT PGP distribution web site: http://web.mit.edu/pgp or: http://web.mit.edu/network/pgpfone Using PGPfone is like using a telephone, except no one else can eavesdrop on your conversation. PGPfone lets you whisper in someone's ear, even if their ear is a thousand miles away. Secure voice calls are supported over the Internet, or through a direct modem-to-modem connection, or even over AppleTalk networks. PGPfone uses Diffie-Hellman public-key technology to provide encryption keys for the user's selection of CAST, TripleDES, or Blowfish encryption algorithms. A unique biometric authentication feature uses spoken words to authenticate the Diffie-Hellman key exchange allowing easy authentication of secure calls. This new version introduces CAST, a fast and well-designed new encryption algorithm from Northern Telecom. The use of Diffie-Hellman in PGPfone allows secure calls to parties that are not previously known to the caller -- no prior key exchange over other channels is necessary. PGPfone 1.0b2 for Windows is an improved version which is now on par with the Macintosh version. It now supports silence detection, much improved sound quality, significantly reduced latency, completely new interface, faster call negotiation, and some important bug fixes. A commercial version of PGPfone will be available in the fall from Phil's new company, Pretty Good Privacy, Inc. The company may be contacted at 415 631-1747, or at http://www.pgp.com.