Internet Security Group: Cryptography

A process to develop a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) for
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) specifying an Advanced Encryption Algorithm
(AEA) has been initiated by National Institute of Standards. It is intended
that the AES will specify an unclassified, publicly-disclosed encryption
algorithm available royalty-free worldwide, that is capable of protecting
sensitive government information well into the next century. It is also hoped
that this standard will be as widely accepted as the Data Encryption Standard
(DES) in the private and public sectors.

IBM has been actively involved in cryptography research for many years. The
DES standard for symmetric key encryption using 56 bit keys was designed and
proposed at IBM several years ago. IBM has now developed a new encryption
algorithm using 128 bit keys called MARS and has submitted it to NIST as a
possible candidate for the AES.

We are also working on the cryptanalysis (especially of other ciphers
submitted to AES) and on elliptic curves. Elliptic curves possess a algebraic
group structure which is used both to design public key signature algorithms and
to break other schemes.