Episode 18: Phil Zimmerman, Cryptographer Extraordinaire

Phil Zimmerman is one of the world's experts on cryptography, which is the study and application of ensuring that no one but you and the person you're talking to can understand what you're saying.

In 1991 Phil invented the way that we secure email communications (PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy) and has been awarded damn near everything you can be noticed for in the digital encryption world, including being inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame, named top 50 tech visionaries of the last 50 years, top 10 innovator in e-business, one of the 50 most influential people on the internet; the list goes on.

In this episode Phil talks about how he got into encryption (he was a peace activist), the weaknesses of email, and the current state of both cryptography and cryptanalytics, including commenting on the Snowden revelations.

He also talks about why we (I'm assuming you're like me and a pretty regular person) need encryption as normal citizens. I don't have anything to hide, do you? You might re-think the way you conduct communications after this.

Enjoy!