NIST announces approval of Advanced Encryption Standard. (News Briefs).On Dec. 4, 2001, the Secretary of Commerce announced approval of Federal Information Processing Standard Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) are publicly announced standards developed by the United States Federal government for use by all non-military government agencies and by government contractors. (FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) A series of publications issed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that specifies information security guidelines for federal government departments and agencies. ) 197, Advanced Encryption Standard (cryptography, algorithm) Advanced Encryption Standard - (AES) The NIST's replacement for the Data Encryption Standard (DES). The Rijndael /rayn-dahl/ symmetric block cipher, designed by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen, was chosen by a NIST contest to be AES. (AES). The new standard will be widely used to protect sensitive computerized information such as financial transactions. The announcement marked the culmination of a 4 year effort by NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology, Washington, DC, www.nist.gov) The standards-defining agency of the U.S. government, formerly the National Bureau of Standards. It is one of three agencies that fall under the Technology Administration (www.technology. computer scientists, who organized an international competition in a drive to develop this strong information encryption formula to protect sensitive information in federal computer systems into the 21st century. The AES incorporates the Rijndael encryption formula which was developed by Belgian cryptographers. Products implementing the AES are expected to be available in the marketplace shortly. FIPS 197 and information about its development are available at http://csrc.nist.gov and http://www.nist.gov/aes. The AES replaces the Data Encryption Standard See DES. Data Encryption Standard - (DES) The NBS's popular, standard encryption algorithm. It is a product cipher that operates on 64-bit blocks of data, using a 56-bit key. It is defined in FIPS 46-1 (1988) (which supersedes FIPS 46 (1977)). (DES) which NIST adopted as a FIPS in 1977 for federal agency use in the protection of sensitive, unclassified un·clas·si·fied adj. 1. Not placed or included in a class or category: unclassified mail. 2. information. Private industry, especially the banking and financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. sectors, uses DES and Triple DES to protect vital electronic transactions. A recent NIST analysis (http://www.nist.gov/director/prog-ofc/report0l-2.pdf) of the economic impact of DES states, "As a result of NISTs efforts, the market for encryption hardware and software expanded, developers of these products faced lower technical and market risks, and users of encryption systems (banks in particular) enjoyed operational efficiencies for their enhanced ability to substitute secure electronic transactions for more costly paper-based and face-to-face transactions...Assuming that industry would have reached a consensus on a data encryption standard three to six years after initial publication of DES, the economic impact results...indicate that it was far more effective and efficient for NIST to develop and implement DES than it would have been to wait for the results of industry cooperation." Assuming a 6-year lag in the development of DES without NIST's efforts, the savings realized by the banking industry are estimated at more than one billion dollars (net present value in 2000). CONTACT: Edward Roback, (301) 975-3696; edward.roback@nist.gov. |
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