NIST used feedback from these analyses and its own assessments to select the finalists. The global cryptographic community has been helping NIST in the AES development process by studying the candidates. Each of the candidate algorithms supports cryptographic key sizes of 128, 192 and 256 bits. NIST requested proposals for the AES on Sept. No significant security vulnerabilities were found for the five finalists during the initial analysis of the algorithms, and each candidate offers technology that is potentially superior for the protection of sensitive information well into the 21st century. (Many members of this group are associated with Counterpane Systems of Minneapolis). Twofish-developed by Bruce Schneier, John Kelsey, Doug Whiting, David Wagner, Chris Hall and Niels Ferguson.Serpent-developed by Ross Anderson, Eli Biham and Lars Knudsen of the United Kingdom, Israel and Norway respectively and.Rijndael-developed by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen of Belgium.RC6™-developed by RSA Laboratories of Bedford, Mass.MARS-developed by International Business Machines Corp.NIST's Information Technology Laboratory chose the following five contenders as finalists for the AES: DES is used widely in the private sector as well, especially in the financial services industry. It will replace the aging Data Encryption Standard, which NIST adopted in 1977 as a Federal Information Processing Standard used by federal agencies to encrypt information. The AES will be a public algorithm designed to protect sensitive government information well into the next century. Encryption systems encode everything from electronic mail to the secret personal identification numbers, or PINs, that people use with bank teller machines. The five finalists are sophisticated mathematical formulas, called algorithms, which are at the heart of computerized encryption systems. Today's decision narrows the field of contenders from 15 candidates to only five. Since that time, cryptographers have tried to find ways to "attack" the different encoding methods, looking for weaknesses that would compromise the encrypted information. The AES will serve as an important security tool in support of the dynamic growth of electronic commerce," Daley said.Ī year ago, researchers from 12 different countries submitted 15 candidates for the AES-the new encoding method that eventually will be adopted by the federal government. "This is a critical milestone in developing the Advanced Encryption Standard. Secretary of Commerce William Daley hailed today's announcement as a significant step toward creating a more secure digital economy. The AES will be a strong data scrambling formula for protecting the electronic data flow of the 21st century. One of the most important competitions in the history of cryptography-and for the future support of secure electronic commerce-entered a new phase today when the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology named a handful of finalists in the drive to develop the Advanced Encryption Standard. You can think of it as the Olympics of information scrambling.