Learn about AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)

AES stands for Advanced Encryption Standard, the data encryption standard is very popular, used for many purposes and used by the US government to protect confidential data.

AES is a symmetric block coding, meaning that each block of text has a certain size (128 bits) encoded, unlike string encoding when each character is encoded. Symmetry means that the key to encrypt and decode is one.

AES history

AES was developed in the late 90s to replace the previous encryption standard, Data Encryption Standard (DES) created by IBM in the early 70s. It was used by the US government in 1977 but then there were many vulnerable vulnerabilities (brute force, differential / linear cryptanalysis) due to the 56-bit algorithm, it was no longer useful when Computer processing is getting stronger.

In 1998, DES became 3DES or Triple DES, using the DES algorithm to transmit messages three times in a row with three different encryption keys. 3DES makes data safer than the brute force attack of that time.

15 algorithms were proposed to replace DES, beginning the 5-year process of the US government. AES was proposed by two cryptographers Vincent Rijmen and Joan Daemen, later called 'Rijindael application'.

AES is an open standard because the real standard is not yet defined. During the design process, it also received comments and suggestions. It is developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology with the aim of ease of use for both hardware and software. Some key and block changes are made to increase safety.

The NSA also participated in reviewing 15 proposals. By August 1999, there were only 5 algorithms (Rijndael, Serpent, RC6, Twofish and MARS). The 'candidates' are further analyzed for security, ease of use, copyright, speed, accuracy when encoding and decoding.

The final winner was Rijndael, then posted to the US government in 2002 and both NSA and other organizations. Until now, AES is still used for top-secret documents, known as FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard). It is then used in the private block, the most popular encryption standard with symmetric key encryption.

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AES is a popular symmetric block coding standard

How does AES work?

AES is a block encryption type, each block is 128 bits in size. Symmetric keys with 3 sizes are 128, 192 and 256 bits, of which the following two sizes are used by the US government for high-level confidential documents, called 'Top Secret'.

Rijndael was originally allowed to add blocks and increase the key length but the standard was later dropped, keeping the standard size as mentioned above. AES is the only widely released encryption standard approved by NSA to protect government information at the highest level.

AES uses the Swn - Substitution Permutation Network (SPN) algorithm. The data is converted into a secure form in a few steps, starting with the standard size plain text block, then inserting into the row and then coding. Each time there are steps to replace, convert, mix.

Just as 3DES has 3 coding steps, AES also has many steps but is implemented more, depending on the key length, with a key of 128 bits is 10 times, 192 bit key is 12 times and 256 bit key is 14 times.

In this process, the encryption key is created and must also have this key to decrypt. Otherwise, the data will just be an unreadable mess. Both the sender and the receiver must know the encryption and decryption key.

AES for everyone

Anyone can use AES today, just like its open source source. For example, through AES Encryption page the data is placed in the text box, the key is entered below and the key length is selected, all 3 key lengths are supported. Then choose encryption or decoding is okay. Although anyone can use AES via the web, the web interface is unsafe, so it is difficult for the government to use it.

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AES encryption interface right on the web

AES and the Internet

Although AES was originally created for the US government to secure data, it could also be used to transfer data over secure networks. AES is used to share files over HTTPS connections, more secure than HTTP, which is designed to prevent intermediate attacks.

AES is also used to encrypt WiFi on the router, when combined with the popular WPA2 protocol, it is called AES / WPA2. Other security protocols used with WPA2 are TKIP older than AES and are believed to be no longer secure. AES is also used to support SSL encryption.

See more:

1. 5 popular encryption algorithms you should know
2. Set up Wifi network system using WPA / WPA2 encryption standard
3. Top 20 best encryption software for Windows