What Is Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)?

The Advanced Encryption Standard (Short for AES) is the gold standard for encryption. Don't believe us? Read more to find out! It's the most secure and has been approved by the U.S. government for sensitive classified data. It's also super easy to use and free to use! Just download it from NIST, and you're all set. You might be wondering: why AES? Why not a more straightforward method? Well, there are two reasons AES is so secure—and why governments worldwide use it: 1) It uses symmetric key encryption, which means that both parties have to have the same key to decrypt each other's messages. This means that even if someone could intercept your message, they still couldn't read it unless they had access to your private key (which is pretty unlikely). 2) It uses block ciphers, meaning each data block gets encrypted independently. If an attacker wants to change one part of your message without affecting other features, they can't do it! They cannot understand what any amount signifies without knowing all of them at once. AES is a pretty cool cipher. It's based on a substitution-permutation network (SPN) and uses a Feistel network, which is a fancy way of saying it's a combo of substitution and permutation. It also has three block sizes—128 bits, 192 bits, and 256 bits—and the key size is unlimited! It's good that the NIST isn't a Belgian cryptographer because we'd all be in trouble if it were. In 1997, the NIST initiated a five-year algorithm development process to replace the Data Encryption Standard (DES) and Triple DES. This process facilitated open collaboration and communication and included a close review of 15 candidates. After an intense evaluation, the Rijndael design—created by two Belgian cryptographers—was chosen as the final choice.