CDR: Re: Rijndael & Hitachi

That a Belgian cryptosystem was eventually selected as the American AES may make it easier to dismiss those fears overseas, and may hasten the adoption of AES internationally. Full AES standardization and interoperability, a good thing, should come more quickly.

Not so, inprepid Vin. A Belgian cipher was chosen simply because the NSA was able to operate with relative impunity in that region, in which it has huge per-capita deployment, compared to a similar actions on its own soil. Cheers, Julian.