AES
In plain terms
A fast, widely-trusted symmetric encryption standard.
Going deeper
The Advanced Encryption Standard is the dominant symmetric cipher, securing data with 128/192/256-bit keys efficiently and reliably. It's the global encryption workhorse.
Under the hood
Hardware-accelerated and considered secure; AES-256 is standard for sensitive data.
Examples
HTTPS, disk encryption, VPNs, file encryption, AES-256.
Think of it like...
Like a heavy-duty standardized lock trusted to secure almost everything.