nee National Bureau of Standards (NBS). An agency of the United States Department of Commerce, NIST has the stated mission of promoting U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and promote the quality of life. As an example, NIST developed the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), a highly secure encryption algorithm used the United States government for sensitive unclassified documents.AES also is used in a number of commercial applications. See Appendix A for contact information. See also AES.