What is Advanced Encryption Standard
What is Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)?
With the evolution of the Internet, business no longer needs to take place in the office. Instead, people can carry their work home with them by loading their files onto a single USB card and bringing them home to use on their own computer.
This means, however, that these same individuals sometimes need to carry confidential information, as well as insider secrets and other information that is restricted from public view. This is inherently risky, because USB drives are too easily lost or stolen, and can fall out of one’s pocket or off one’s keychain simply by jumping over a puddle.
Anyone that carries confidential information with them on a USB drive should always have a USB flash encryption method that utilizes what is known as Advanced Encryption Standard, or AES.
What is AES?
AES is a government approved encryption algorithm designed to hide highly sensitive files from the public eye. This algorithm is so strong that it takes thousands of computers running simultaneously in order to have any chance of cracking the code, and even then it can be an exceedingly difficult task for even the most skilled code breaker.
Created in 1997 to replace the Data Encryption Standard (DES), the AES is a cipher (coded message) designed specifically to block unwanted attacks against its data, and its creation was paid for by the government to be provided, royalty free, to be used for security purposes for companies and individuals alike.
AES uses what is known as a “block cipher” – which means that an initial block (password) goes through multiple transformation cycles, essentially masking it from visibility. There are different encryption types, including a 128 bit and 256 bit options. The 256 bit option is not much better than the 128 bit, though there is, of course, slightly added security.
The DES, the old system, used only a 54 bit key size, making it easier to break by Brute Force. It also had several other holes that were too easily exploited.
AES for USB Encryption
USB file encryption software and hardware have begun using AES to keep the public from accessing the data. This has been especially important as USB drives begin to be used more often by businesses, which often contain sensitive and confidential files that could spell disaster if accessed.
AES ensures that your files are completely locked away until the correct password is given. This system is the not only the safest file encryption system available, it is also one of the most user friendly (in that it runs smoothly and will not disrupt the way your hard drive is working).
Hardware encrypted devices use AES in a separate chip, so that the password must be entered before any files on the USB disk can be downloaded. Software encryption stores the files on the USB drive itself, allowing them to be downloaded but not accessed.