October 14, 2008, 4:44 AM — In my last post I talked about encryption algorithms Data Encryption Standard (DES) and triple DES (3DES).
Other encryption algorithms include RC4, RC5, RC6 (proprietary encryption ciphers named after Dr. Ronald Rivest of what is now RSA Security) and the more recently approved standard, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
Remember that DES uses a 56-bit key size. It has routinely been attacked over the years and proven to be vulnerable.
AES is a U.S. government standard defined in Federal Information Processing (FIPS) Standard Number 197 in 2001. It is the federal government approved encryption algorithm and can be used up to SECRET level with 128-bit keys and up to TOP SECRET level with 192-bit keys. As such, AES specifies three approved key lengths: 128-bits, 192-bits and 256 bits. The AES standard employs a “symmetric†encryption approach. It requires the same key to be used for encryption and decryption. The AES standard was actually submitted to the AES selection process under the name “Rijndael†by two Belgian cryptographers, Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen. Read the rest of this article
