What cryptographic standard does AES refer to?

The term AES refers to the Advanced Encryption Standard, which is a widely adopted symmetric encryption algorithm. It was established to secure sensitive but unclassified information by the U.S. federal government and is now used globally. The Advanced Encryption Standard is essential in many encryption technologies used today, including securing data transmitted over networks.

AES operates by using a fixed block size of data and allows for key sizes of 128, 192, or 256 bits, providing varying levels of security. It employs a series of transformations on the data to ensure confidentiality and integrity, making it a robust choice for encrypting sensitive information.

The other options do not reflect established cryptographic standards and do not correspond to any widely recognized encryption algorithms. Thus, they do not provide the correct definition of AES.