Why AES256 as the chosen algorithm?

[happybeing]

Check out this post and come back if you still have questions (tip: search @dirvine’s posts for AES256 / encryption etc).

Crypto chat

Great conversation folks, and good research. My position is that the crypto community is still reeling from the revelations and messing that happened with NIST. I feel there is more doubt over EC encryption than AES, but AES is far from perfect and in some cases is weakened. A few years back a good related key attack was found and Bruce Sheider recommended changing the number of rounds of the algorithm for AES256 from 10 → 14 if I remember correctly. It may have been more rounds, but it was clea…