The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) created a procedure to select a symmetric-key encryption algorithm to protect sensitive federal information. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a standard used by the U.S. government. It was announced by NIST after 5 years of a standardization process, in which many designs were evaluated before the solution was selected.

• Based on your understanding of how AES was chosen, what is your opinion of the criteria used?
• Why do you think these criteria were important?
• What do you think about the effectiveness and ease of use of AES?