Encryption is vital for the protection of private information in digital form.
The need for encryption will only continue to grow as more personal information is manipulated digitally. Individuals and organizations alike will require strong encryption algorithms to safeguard private information from unwanted intrusion. NIST should not be moving forward with technical standards specification until critical policy decisions are resolved. Secret standards such as the one proposed cannot be evaluated by independent experts and therefore cannot attain the public trust. In addition, the current proposed technical standard is incomplete.