You are sharing sensitive information when you are seated at a cafe, using Wi-Fi, or just paying with your smartphone. When this information is not encrypted, it is easy to intercept it like a postcard, which any postman would read. This problem is addressed through encryption, which converts the data into an unreadable form. To make this protection reliable and consistent, encryption needs a trusted standard. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is one such standard, widely used to secure digital data across applications, devices, and networks. In this article, you’ll learn what AES encryption is, how it works at a practical level, and where it is commonly used to safeguard sensitive information. What is AES Encryption? AES is a standard of symmetric encryption worldwide, and it was developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the name FIPS PUB 197. It uses the permutation-substitution network and multiple encryption rounds to securely transform 128-bit data blocks while maintaining high performance. AES is among the initial and the only publicly available ciphers that are authorized by the National Security Agency (NSA). It was added to the ISO/IEC 18033-3 international standard and is recommended as a secure standard of encryption. […]
