In cryptography, Kerckhoffs's principle (also called Kerckhoffs's Desiderata, Kerckhoffs's assumption, axiom, or law) was stated by Auguste Kerckhoffs in the 19th century: A cryptosystem should be secure even if everything about the system, except the key, is public knowledge.
Kerckhoffs's principle was reformulated (perhaps independently) by Claude Shannon as "The enemy knows the system." In that form, it is called Shannon's maxim. In contrast to "security through obscurity," it is widely embraced by cryptographers.
Read more about Kerckhoffs's Principle: Origins, Explanation of The Principle, Applications, Security Through Obscurity
Famous quotes containing the word principle:
“Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)