ABSTRACT
The rapidly growing wireless communication industry faces an exploding need
for security. With the ever-increasing computing speed brought by advanced
technologies, higher and higher security level is required to counter various
attacks. The data encryption standard (DES) has been the U.S. government
standard since 1977. However, with the fast computing technology these days,
it can be cracked quickly and inexpensively. In January 1997, the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invited proposals for new
algorithms for the advanced encryption standard (AES). Fifteen preliminary
algorithms were proposed in response. Among these preliminary candidates,
MARS, RC6, Rijndael, Serpent, and Twofish were announced as the finalists
on August 9, 1999. After further evaluating the security, as well as both
software and hardware implementations of these finalists, NIST announced
in October 2000 that Rijndael was selected as the AES algorithm [1].
