> "obscurity does play a part in security (you don't go around publishing your private keys...)" Security by obscurity is the opposite of using private keys. T

> "obscurity does play a part in security (you don't go around publishing your private keys...)" Security by obscurity is the opposite of using private keys. The algorithms for security by public/private keypairs are published and open to anyone to see; the strength does not depend on keeping the algorithm secret. (Worth mentioning, some public/private keypair algorithms may actually have security by obscurity built in, such as the DES algo that some people speculate has hidden backdoors in how hashes are created.)