CISSP Practice Exam 2025 – Complete Prep Guide

The correct choice, which is the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), plays a crucial role in modern data security as the successor to the Data Encryption Standard (DES). AES was established as part of the FIPS PUB 197 in 2001, and it provides a more robust and secure algorithm for encrypting sensitive information.

The primary reason for transitioning from DES to AES was due to the increased computational power available to attackers, which rendered DES vulnerable to brute-force attacks. DES uses a 56-bit key, making it susceptible to being cracked relatively quickly with modern technology. In contrast, AES supports key lengths of 128, 192, and 256 bits, providing significantly higher security levels.

The other alternatives don't accurately fulfill the requirement specified in the question. Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a security feature aimed at preventing code execution in certain areas of memory—it does not pertain to encryption. The Data Encryption Algorithm (DEA) is essentially another term that refers to DES, thus not providing a solution but rather reflecting the older standard. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) represents a set of standards; while AES is part of FIPS, it is not the encryption standard itself. AES directly represents the evolved standard for protecting sensitive information as opposed