As a result of these key-breaking experiments, the U.S government began using a stronger version of the Data Encryption Standard, called Triple Data Encryption Standard (Triple DES or 3DES). In 2001, the U.S. government developed a more secure encryption standard called the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Today, most US government agencies and many private businesses use AES with various key bit lengths. AES uses longer bit lengths to increase the difficulty of cracking its keys, just as the DES methods do.