Status of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Development Effort

[Due to the evolving nature of the AES development effort, this paper does not contain the complete information that will be presented at NISSC 1999. During the spring, NIST has been considering public comments and analysis, and during the summer NIST will be making the selection of the AES candidate algorithm finalists. Although this paper does not include many specifics, it presents some general topics that can be elaborated upon in greater detail at NISSC 1999.]