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ArticSoft use of AES Encryption

AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is the algorithm that ArticSoft uses in it's data security software to encrypt information.   Articsoft use AES encryption with a 256 bit key length.




The AES is a cryptographic algorithm that was approved by the US National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) as a replacement for the Data Encryption Standard (DES) which had been approved for the encryption of financial information since the late 1970's.

In the late 1990's DES was felt by many experts to be vulnerable to brute force attack by specialized computing machines, and to have a more limited utility where even desktop PCs have immense processing power available to them, and the Internet allows attackers to harness the spare time of hundreds or even thousands of computers.

NIST held a public competition for a replacement, and a number of algorithms were proposed.   One entrant, Rijndael (now known as AES), was selected above the others and has been recommended as suitable for protecting computer information.


AES encryption & ArticSoft Data Security

ArticSoft have implemented the AES algorithm for encryption at its longest (strongest) key length, currently 256 bits. The implementation is compliant with the FIPS 197 recommendation.

This has been done to provide you with confidence that your information has been protected using the best techniques currently available, and that it will stay adequately protected for some time to come.


AES Additional Information & Fact Sheet  (NIST)

" Assuming that one could build a machine that could recover a DES key in a second (i.e., try 255keys per second), then it would take that machine approximately 149 thousand-billion (149 trillion) years to crack a 128-bit AES key. To put that into perspective, the universe is believed to be less than 20 billion years old."

" Barring any attacks against AES that are faster than key exhaustion, then even with future advances in technology, AES has the potential to remain secure well beyond twenty years."

For more information on AES please see NIST's AES fact sheet.




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AES Encryption and ArticSoft's use of AES 256 for data security