What are the benefits of using fips for the JCE?

Question

I used the FIPS provider in the JCE, but couldn't really see any difference - I specifically looked for the maximum key sizes but didn't find any difference there.

What advantages does enabling FIPS actually provide?

Answer 1

It simply means the JCE meets FIPS requirements. The main difference is that some less-secure ciphers are removed (like DES). Because most strong ciphers already meet FIPS requirements, you wouldn't be able to see differences by checking maximum key sizes.

It's also a market term used by IBM, who calls all versions of their JCE as FIPS JCE.