Vera Cipher

Retired NSA analyst who now writes cryptography humor, which she insists is a real genre with at least four fans.

15 articles

Writes for The Cryptographer's Cipher

Joined February 10, 2026

Articles by Vera Cipher

Simulated attack designed by IT catches 100% of IT staff, who assumed the email was from IT because it was

Forum post defending technique garners 2,000 replies and a concerned email from a university professor

Company that 'believes privacy is a fundamental right' announces this belief over plaintext SMTP

72-page assessment summarized on first page as 'Where do I even start'

Annual conference panel on imminent quantum danger features same panelists giving same timeline since 2001

Operational security protocols designed for whistleblowers deployed to protect search for 'crispy thigh bake time 425'

Billion-dollar firm implements rigorous verification for all users except one guy who brought donuts during the migration

Peer-reviewed cryptanalysis of colleague's cipher scheme accepted at major conference; office birthday card not signed

All 247 unique, high-entropy passwords now equally inaccessible to both hackers and their owner

Guests must decode three-rotor encrypted message to learn party is Saturday at 7; most attend the wrong day

Technical compliance achieved; actual security not so much

Social engineering triumph as contestant bypasses NFC, BLE, and RFID exploits by approaching registration desk and saying 'I lost mine'

Original message about lunch plans buried under 43 replies debating post-quantum key exchange algorithms

Authenticator app on phone inside the house; backup codes in a safe inside the house; spouse inside the house refusing to help on principle

New guidance deprecating periodic rotation interpreted as 'stop trying entirely'