Named for Auguste Kerckhoffs, who wrote "La Cryptographie Militare" (Military Cryptography) in 1883. Kerckhoffs' Principle can be paraphrased as "If your method of encrypting is comprimised, this should not keep you from continuing to use it." This means that you should not rely on the secrecy of your algorithm, but rather on the secrecy of your key. It is often used in reference to security through obscurity.