The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a specification for how electronic data should be encrypted that was published by the National Insitute for Standards in Technology (NIST) in the U.S. in 2001 https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/privacy/illustrated-guide-advanced-encryption-standard?utm_medium=email&utm_source=marketo&mkt_tok=MTk5LVFERS0yOTEAAAGTfWHXbMeay5dEA78XJDcrELbG96ewhrXEctQc2eHKwAZXhDiPTQAc3VfKce7JKG_WxHuTk8JSwgDCi3K26nb3Zo9UfC7qi7F7eGy_k_KMJVVombQ