The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has initiated a process to develop a new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to protect sensitive electronic information. This new standard will be a Federal Information Processing Standard applicable to federal agencies and available for voluntary use by other organizations.
NIST is seeking input from industry, standards organizations, government agencies, and others to develop minimum acceptability requirements and evaluation criteria for the AES. After considering public comments and finalizing the criteria, NIST will invite individuals and organizations to submit algorithms for consideration.
The current Data Encryption Standard (DES), first approved in 1977, will continue to be used for many applications during the transition period to the new AES. NIST will host public workshops and consult with stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition to the new standard.
Keywords: encryption, algorithm, standard, security, protection
