What is AES (Rijndael)?
The AES – Advanced Encryption Standard, is a state of the art algorithm (developed by Rijndael) and chosen by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology on October 2, 2000. Although selected, it will not become officially “approved” by the US Secretary of Commerce until Q2 2001. Meanwhile, products are already available which use the Rijndael algorithm within AES encryption tools. For example http://www.privatecrypt.com/int/. AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is a symmetric cipher defined in Federal Information Processing (FIPS) Standard Number 197 in 2001 as the federal government approved encryption algorithm. The NSA has approved 128-bit AES for use up to SECRET level and 192-bit AES for use up to TOP SECRET level. AES is based upon the Rijndael algorithm, which was invented by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen. AES specifies three approved key lengths: 128-bits, 192-bits and 256-bits. Nicolas Courtois maintains an excellent web page on the current state of attac
