While the matter has been in courts and headlines for multiple months, many people still don’t know what a ‘cipher’ is.

A cipher is simply a coded way of writing messages. In government-speak, it is the method used to convey sensitive messages to prevent any unauthorised people from understanding them.

Ciphers involve a code that acts as a key to make a message readable to the right person. The method is especially known for sending messages from across borders as the transmission could involve a threat of interception.

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What is the ‘342’ statement?

Coding and decoding ciphers is a specialised task and entire departments are dedicated to it.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office has more than 100 officers working in grade-16, who have been hired to read such messages. They are called “cipher assistants” and are also deployed in different embassies of Pakistan located outside the country.