Cipher is a method of encrypting information to keep it secret from prying eyes. It's like putting a lock on your diary so your nosy siblings (or the NSA) can't read it.

How to use it in a sentence

"I can't believe the product manager wants us to implement our own custom cipher - doesn't he know that's a recipe for disaster?" the exasperated engineer complained to her teammate over Slack.

The grizzled software architect smirked and said "In my day, we had to walk uphill both ways in the snow to deliver our ciphers, and we liked it that way!"

If you actually want to learn more...

• The Investigatory Powers Bill and Encryption: This article discusses the importance of encryption for privacy and the challenges posed by law enforcement access. It compares encryption in transit vs. end-to-end encryption. Read more

• Improving SSH Private Key Security: Learn how to better protect your SSH private keys using passphrases and understand the current vulnerabilities in key file encryption. Secure your keys

• Encryption Backdoors - Balancing Security and Law Enforcement: This post examines the risks of introducing encryption backdoors for law enforcement and argues for maintaining strong encryption to protect sensitive data across industries. Explore the debate

Note: the Developer Dictionary is in Beta. Please direct feedback to skye@statsig.com.