🔑 Kerckhoffs' Principle Applied To Life

In cryptography class, one of the first concepts we learned about was Kerckhoffs' Principle, which states that all information belonging to a secure encryption scheme can fall into the hands of the enemy as long as the key is not revealed. At first, it seems like a counterintuitive idea—why would you want to reveal your entire algorithm to the public? Isn’t that the opposite of what secrecy entails?

You’d be surprised to hear that the security behind all those times you’ve logged into Gmail or Facebook relies on this statement. In fact, the more information you provide to the public, the greater the likelihood someone out there will devise a way to break your encryption scheme, in which case you’ll know not to use that scheme anymore. Putting information out there means having both the good and bad guys ganging up against each other while you sit and watch until one of them wins the battle. It’s like when people place their bets on horse racing–except you’re betting on PhD students and researchers across the world instead of horses.

I bring up Kerckhoffs' Principle because many of you who read my blog probably wonder, “Why does she reveal so much on her blog? Isn’t she afraid of people seeing some of her posts?” Indeed, I reveal a lot about myself–the way I think, the struggles I’ve dealt with, my perspective on contemporary social issues… all of which can be polarizing topics to an audience on the worldwide web. Let me put it this way (and take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt): the more information you put out there, the lesser the likelihood someone can blackmail you with that information, because everyone will already have known it. You can’t inflict harm upon someone using the same insult they’ve heard a million times. You can’t triumph over striking your opponent with your sword if their wound already existed in the first place (thanks for making us read The Iliad, Columbia).

So, despite the transparency of my blog posts, keep in mind that there are things about myself that I won’t reveal. If you read my posts thinking that you’ve developed an accurate perception of me, you might not be wrong, but you won’t be entirely right either. Perhaps I’m less intimidating in person. Or perhaps I’m not very approachable but am totally oblivious as to what you’re thinking. By Kerckhoffs' Principle, I’ll always protect my key no matter what. So, rest assured that I will remain secure no matter what our interactions are like :)

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