【正文】 t relevant． Because the spiders， resulting indexes， and search algorithms of each search engine differ， so do the search results and rankings across the various search engines． This explains why a top 10 site in HotBot may not appear near the top of Alta Vista when the same keyword search criterion is entered． In addition， many， but not all， search utilities also reference metatags— invisible HTML tags within documents that describe their content— as a way to control how content is indexed． As a result， proper use of metatags throughout a site can also boost search engine ranking Advanced Encryption Standard For the past three years， the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been working to develop a new encryption standard to keep government information secure． The anization is in the final stages of an open process of selecting one or more algorithms， or datascrambling formulas， for the new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and plans to make adecision by late summer or early fall． The standard is slated to go into effect next year． AES is intended to be a stronger， more efficient successor to Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES)， which replaced the aging DES， which was cracked in less than three days in July 1998． “ Until we have the AES， 3DES will still offer protection for years to e． So there is no need to immediately switch over，” says Edward Roback， acting chief of the puter security division at NIST and chairman of the AES selection mittee．“ What AES will offer is a more efficient algorithm． It will be a federal standard， but it will be widely implemented in the IT munity．” According to Roback， efficiency of the proposed algorithms is measured by how fast they can encrypt and decrypt information， how fast they can present an encryption key and how much information they can encrypt． The AES review mittee is also looking at how much space the algorithm takes up on a chip and how much memory it requires． Roback says the selection of a more efficient AES will also result in cost savings and better use of resources． “ DES was designed for hardware implementations， and we are now living in a world of much more efficient software， and we have learned an awful lot about the design of algorithms，” says Roback．“ When you start multiplying this with the billions of implementations done daily， the saving on overhead on the works will be enormous．” The process of selecting the algorithm for AES has been notable for its openness and transparency． This is a marked departure from the government39。s assertion that the standard was still secure． NIST kicked off the selection process in September 1997． Conferences were held in August 1998 and March 1999； cryptographers from around the world discussed the algorithm candidates and helped narrow the list to 15 and then to five finalists： IBM39。s Rijndael；Ross Andersen， Eli Baham and Lars Knudsen39。s a minority that wants to select more than one． Digital Wallets A digital wallet is software that enables users to pay for goods on the Web. It holds creditcard numbers and other personal information such as a shipping address ． Once entered， the data automatically populates order fields at merchant sites. When using a digital wallet， consumers don39。re fairly easy to obtain ． For example， when a consumer makes a purchase at a merchant site that39。s own form ． At the end of the purchase， one consumer is asked to sign up for a wallet of his choice by entering a user name and password for future purchases ． Users can also acquire wallets at a wallet vendor39。s hard drive ． The user retains control of his credit card and personal information locally ． With a serverbased wallet， a user fills out his personal information， and a cookie is automatically downloaded ．（ A cookie is a text file that contains information about the user ．） In this scenario， the consumer information resides on the server of a financial institution or a digital wallet vendor rather than on the user39。s sensitive data is typically housed at a financial institution， so there39。t been widespread ． Standards are pivotal to the success of digital wallets. New wireless LANs standard With portable puters and wireless LANs,users can enjoy greater productivity while away from their desks ,whether they are in conference rooms, public areas or remote offices.BRUntil recently , however,wireless LANs were too slow for most enterprise on the IEEE standdrd,they ran at 1M to 2M bit/sec. No