Encryption is a method of encoding messages or information so that it is only accessible and readable to authorized parties.

AES stands for Advanced Encryption Standard. This is an asymmetric key encryption cipher, meaning that the same key used to encrypt the data is used to decrypt it locally on your device.

The fact that AES has been certified by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology as a secure and viable measure for safeguarding data made it popular. Right now, governments and armed forces worldwide use it to protect sensitive national information.

The 256-bit encryption has an encryption key length of 2²⁶⁵. There are 1.2 x 10⁷⁷?possible combinations needed to unveil a single encryption key. That?s about 115 quattuorvigintillion possibilities.

The number is indeed a mouthful; the idea is that it?s impossible to crack. Such an attempt would require extreme computational power and some million years to succeed.