"Keeping secrets" is in many places part of the cultural cachet. It's a high-status move to, when asked about something, say "I can't talk about that" (the "it

"Keeping secrets" is in many places part of the cultural cachet. It's a high-status move to, when asked about something, say "I can't talk about that" (the "it's above your paygrade" is implicit). In a lot of corporate cultures, and a lot of government ones too, that status-affirmation-through-secrecy is really pure status-seeking; the actual security measures aren't that difficult to defeat, the secrets aren't that important, and the people you care about not telling are unlikely to be asking. That's different from someone who is trying to conceal that they even have a secret, like someone trying to infiltrate another organization while remaining inconspicuous, or someone who's secretly embezzling or cheating on their spouse. That second form is far more isolating.