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It's not practical for VoIP providers to offer encryption most of the time, because their connections to the real POTS/PSTN is still just regular, wiretappable PRI/T1s at some point along the line. They have to interconnect with the real phone network at some point to be useful, and all calls therefore are still tappable.

However, you could just use Zphone with ZRTP (or run your own PBX using FreeSWITCH to accomplish what you are looking for from a VoIP provider).

Apparently little has changed on the Zfone web site since 2007. The download has been unavailable since 29 January 2011.

Anyone have a link to a download?

Answered already below:

http://zfoneproject.com/

Zfone is a new secure VoIP phone software product which lets you make encrypted phone calls over the Internet. Its principal designer is Phil Zimmermann, the creator of PGP, the most widely used email encryption software in the world. Zfone uses a new protocol called ZRTP, which has a better architecture than the other approaches to secure VoIP.

* Doesn't depend on signaling protocols, PKI, or any servers at all. Key negotiations are purely peer-to-peer through the media stream
* Interoperates with any SIP/RTP phone, auto-detects if encryption is supported by other endpoint
* Available as a "plugin" for existing soft VoIP clients, effectively converting them into secure phones
* Available as an SDK for developers to integrate into their VoIP applications
* IETF has published the protocol spec as RFC 6189, and source code is published

[...]

http://zfoneproject.com/

Yes like in Australia the "URL database" will grow and grow.
http://zfoneproject.com/ for all :)

There are several encryption programs for Nokia's Symbian phones that work over GSM, but they don't look terribly compatible even amongst one another, which has presumably stymied adoption.

These two Android apps are compatible with Zfone, which is SIP not GSM. So they should work with the commercial Zfone clients for Windows Mobile and Symbian, which covers the vast majority of smartphones outside the U.S.

I've found no Zfone port for the iPhone or BlackBerry but they're bit players outside the U.S. Maemo support has sadly not yet happened, but presumably once the MeeGo platform stabilizes.

Yes like with http://zfoneproject.com/ you have to set both ends up, but after that its all ok.
This is great news for Android but I feel will make the end users glow. Will the speak want more sneak and peek or demand decryption form the creators.

Well, there's this, which is probably the safest method for voice communication. There are software apps for Windows Mobile that encrypt voice connections.

A couple years ago, I looked high and low for a functional Windows Mobile app to do this that is compatible with modern phones.. if you have any useful links I'd love if you could share them? Thanks in advance :)

Well, there's this, which is probably the safest method for voice communication. There are software apps for Windows Mobile that encrypt voice connections. You could use an Android phone and Google Voice, provided Google doesn't crater immediately to post-it requests. You could use Skype with the same proviso.

Bottom line is, though, if you have something that you really, really don't want the government to know about it, don't use a phone (particularly and especially a regular cell phone) to communicate it.

There's no need to reinvent the wheel, and you can use open protocols too. May I suggest you apply zfone, from the inventor of PGP, to encrypt your SIP phone calls?

http://zfoneproject.com/getstarted.html

Has anyone successfully used Phil Zimmerman's Zfone with Ekiga? If the encryption works for voice and chat it could be a great free open-source alternative to Skype.

Wait! before I thought only the NSA by statute and Google (because Google is truly eViL by supplying the NSA (& NASA!) with technology & staff), could listen to my phone calls, transcribe, translate, & index them into perpetuity. But now I'm reading the Italian mafia can listen in too?

Of course this explains why the Italian mafia learned awhile ago to encrypt their own calls. On the job training if you ask me.

FWIW, there's an asterisk module for pretty good privacy: http://www.zfoneproject.com/prod_asterisk.html

http://www.securitymanagement.com/article/new-voip-encryption-challenges-005680

Why not?

Tor will light you up as 'smart' and you will be noted for extra surveillance.
Tor is still plain text, it just needs the cash and mind set to watch.
GCHQ just has to litter the UK with Tor help.
Then crunch the numbers.
http://zfoneproject.com/about.html might be a bit more 'fun'.
But with laws to allow backtracking and remote keylogging when you become of interest, there are other ways around any software solution.

Remember skype is the friend of law enforcement around the world.
They my not listen like an Eastern European government in the 1980's in but are very open to any interested party.
The deeper they spread their codes and 'free' software the more end user should take care.
If on skype always consider using a product like zfone, the opensource encryption solution.
http://zfoneproject.com/

Zfone is software for secure voice communication over the Internet (VoIP), using the ZRTP protocol. It is created by Phil Zimmermann, the creator of the PGP encryption software. Zfone works on top of existing SIP- and RTP-programs, like Gizmo, but should work with any SIP- and RTP-compliant VoIP-program.

http://zfoneproject.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zfone

According to the Skype Blog, this is a text filter that only applies to TOM-Skype. If you use regular Skype, or if you use Skype or TOM-Skype for voice (rather than text) communication, you are still secure.

Yeah, I know... I don't trust them either. But even the NYT article didn't uncover any snooping of the actual voice calls (although the phone numbers and names of those involved in the call [b]were[/b] being recorded.)

I tried using Zfone with Gizmo a year or two ago, since I trusted the inventor of PGP to provide a better security solution than Skype's proprietary secret encryption. Unfortunately (at least at that time), the voice quality and ability to handle NAT wasn't as good in Gizmo as it was in Skype. Wonder if they've improved it yet?

Q: What is Zfone?

A: Zfone is my new secure VoIP phone software which lets you make secure encrypted phone calls over the Internet. The ZRTP protocol used by Zfone will soon be integrated into many standalone secure VoIP clients, but today we have a software product that lets you turn your existing VoIP client into a secure phone. The current Zfone software runs in the Internet protocol stack on any Windows XP, Mac OS X, or Linux PC, and intercepts and filters all the VoIP packets as they go in and out of the machine, and secures the call on the fly. You can use a variety of different software VoIP clients to make a VoIP call. The Zfone software detects when the call starts, and initiates a cryptographic key agreement between the two parties, and then proceeds to encrypt and decrypt the voice packets. It has its own little separate GUI, telling the user if the call is secure. It's as if Zfone were a "bump on the cord", sitting between the VoIP client and the Internet. Think of it as a bump in the protocol stack.

A perfect time to mention...

Zfone - free (as in beer) encrypted VoIP.

Get it while it's still legal!

Oh noes, the police can't decipher Skype! We're all gonna die!
Yeah right.
If you are paying attention, Skype is incorporated in Luxembourg, which is part of the EU, just like Germany (they actually share borders).
Do you think the EU would allow for some European company to provide tools to "terrorists" without having eavesdropping ability?

Now for the real story; German Police is putting on a little show so people actually trust *more* the closed-source Skype software.

If the German Police had no way of eavesdropping they would either (a) Shut up about it or (b) Actually say they have supercomputers that can decipher anything (even if this is not true). (a) or (b) would create enough FUD for "terrorists" to actually distrust Skype as a communication medium.

This is all spin doctor speak, and I would never trust Skype for sensitivie material communications. The Zfone project http://zfoneproject.com/ is a much more secure system.

Howsabout Phil Zimmerman's zfone?

<grammarnazi>

</grammarnazi>

Should VoIP users consider using Phil Zimmermans Z-fone? possibly a bit more secure than what we have now
I would wager.

http://zfoneproject.com/

Phil Zimmermann + PGP-like implementation + VoIP = Zfone! Hopefully it's not vulnerable to kryptonite meteor showers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zfone and http://zfoneproject.com/

I've been wanting to set up an experimental install with this with a friend in Mexico to check this out, though I need to see if it does conferencing yet. Pity it doesn't work under Skype, but that's Skype's implementation that's screwing that up.

It looks like a firm in Germany already offers a AES-256 bit encrypted mobile and POTS phone, as well as a softphone. Although their hard phones aren't cheap, the softphone is free to give to your contacts. http://www.cryptophone.de They alse include source code for "full independent review" with their products.

Similarly, Phil Zimmermann, the creator of PGP has released his Zphone to make encrypted VoIP calls. Also, the Asterisk project offers an encrypted IAX channel.

Yes, yes there are.

Twinkle (Linux) supports both SRTP and ZRTP.
Minisip and Minisplat (both Linux) presently support SRTP and are working toward ZRTP support.
Eyebeam (Windows) supports SRTP
ZFone (Windows, Linux, MacOSX) uses ZRTP and can work with any SIP-based software (because it intercepts and encrypts the stream).
OpenWengo (Windows, Linux) is in the process of implementing SRTP, with some automated key exchange, and later ZRTP is planned.

So really, the answer is: yes, yes there are implementations.

PGPfone does still run under Windows and the source is available. Zfone (also by Phil Zimmerman, is a new secure VoIP program. Gizmo and Skype also have encryption (though they're closed source).

they actually did:
http://zfoneproject.com/

"Q: Does Zfone work with Skype?

A: No. Skype uses a closed proprietary protocol, which they do not publish. That makes it hard to make Zfone work with it. Skype does not interoperate with the rest of the VoIP industry, which is built on open standards. I decided to follow the industry standards."

Given the likelihood of government eavesdropping (without a warrant of course) on VOIP calls, this is worth considering.

"Q: Does Zfone work with Skype?

A: No. Skype uses a closed proprietary protocol, which they do not publish. That makes it hard to make Zfone work with it. Skype does not interoperate with the rest of the VoIP industry, which is built on open standards. I decided to follow the industry standards."

Given the likelihood of government eavesdropping (without a warrant of course) on VOIP calls, this is worth considering.