DES Was Dying
By the mid-1990s, DES was in trouble.
Its 56-bit key could be brute-forced. The EFF proved this in 1998 by cracking DES in under a day.
Triple DES worked, but it was three times slower than single DES. Not ideal for a world moving online.
The cryptographic community needed something new. Something fast, secure, and built for modern hardware.
NIST decided to hold a public competition to find the next encryption standard.
The Competition
Unlike DES, which was designed behind closed doors by IBM and the NSA, this would be different.
Open. Transparent. Global.
Anyone could submit a cipher. Anyone could try to break the submissions.
1997: NIST announces the requirements
| Requirement | Specification |
|---|---|
| Block size | 128 bits |
| Key sizes | 128, 192, and 256 bits |
| Performance | Fast in hardware and software |
| License | Royalty-free worldwide |
1998: Submissions close
15 candidates arrived from around the world.
Ciphers from the USA, Europe, Asia, and beyond. Each claiming to be the future of encryption.
1999: Five finalists
After a year of public analysis, NIST narrowed it down:
| Cipher | Origin | Designers |
|---|---|---|
| Rijndael | Belgium | Rijmen, Daemen |
| Serpent | UK/Israel/Norway | Anderson, Biham, Knudsen |
| Twofish | USA | Schneier et al. |
| RC6 | USA | Rivest et al. |
| MARS | USA | IBM |
2000: Rijndael wins
After three years of attacks, analysis, and debate, NIST made the call.
Rijndael (pronounced “rain-doll”) became the Advanced Encryption Standard.
Why Rijndael?
The cipher was created by two Belgian cryptographers:
- Vincent Rijmen
- Joan Daemen
The name “Rijndael” combines their surnames.
It won because of balance.
Serpent was arguably more secure, but slower.
Twofish was fast, but more complex to implement.
Rijndael hit the sweet spot:
- Fast on everything from 8-bit smart cards to 64-bit servers
- Clean mathematical structure, easy to analyze
- Simple enough to implement correctly
A New Era of Trust
The DES era had a shadow of doubt. Designed in secret, with NSA involvement. Did it have backdoors?
AES was different.
Three years of open cryptanalysis. Hundreds of researchers attacking all 15 candidates. Rijndael survived.
The timeline:
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1997 | Competition announced |
| 1998 | 15 candidates submitted |
| 1999 | 5 finalists selected |
| 2000 | Rijndael wins |
| 2001 | Published as FIPS 197, officially named AES |
AES has been the global standard for over two decades.
It encrypts your WiFi, your banking, your messages. No practical attack has ever broken it.
Next, we’ll look at how it works.