There's a famous term-of-art in the infosec field: "security through obscurity". It refers to the method of controlling access to something by keeping key parts of the protection mechanism unpublished, hypercomplex, or otherwise hidden from the casual observer. This is generally bad, in that once the secret gets out the entire system becomes vulnerable.

But in a big bureaucracy, I've discovered, one can sometimes build a successful career by keeping a low profile, avoiding eye contact, never volunteering, etc.—a principle which might be termed "Job security through obscurity". It really works!

TopicHumor - TopicOrganizations - 2005-09-23

(correlates: LookingBack, BluffingVersusHumility, LightMind, ...)