KoolSpan U: Weekly Word Wednesday – Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a common encryption type that uses a symmetrical key based encryption standard that is accepted worldwide. A symmetrical key means the same key is used for both encrypting and decrypting data. AES is an NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) selected algorithm published in FIPS 197 (to see FIPS defined, click here), that is often written as AES-128, AES-256 or some other power of two suffix, indicating the size in bits of the encryption key selected for use in that particular run of the AES algorithm.

KoolSpan provides its users AES-256 bit encryption for maximum strength that is necessary to support KoolSpan’s TrustGroup. The KoolSpan TrustGroup is a patented key management system that gives users the powerful capability to organize and manage security around their organization’s teams and operational requirements. Through a double-blind operation, a large key store unique to a TrustGroup is used to dynamically authenticate users and to compute AES encryption keys. It’s important to note that none of the keys associated with a TrustGroup are ever used in user data encryption, and are only used indirectly during the authentication process. All of these operations are performed entirely within the protected TrustChip hardware.

Francis Knott

Francis Knott has over 17 years of mobility, technology, interactive media, software and healthcare experience. Mr Knott is an expert at building companies, growing revenue and launching and marketing new products. In the past, he has worked in software and product development, mobile social media, and mobile applications development.