Secret 6

Samuel Johnson once wrote:
"The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it; for, however absurd it may be thought to boast an honour by an act which shows that it was conferred without merit, yet most men seem rather inclined to confess the want of virtue than of importance."
This statement is quite true because in many ways it is soaked in irony and even paradoxic, though not in the same degree as saying "this statement is false" or "I am lying now," yet it does trump the very purpose of keeping a secret in the sense that if keeping one brings notoriety then what's the purpose of keeping said information hidden? This is truly food for thought, a concept that could be discussed for hours. There is a reason why secrets are what they are; the public at large shouldn't be aware of its existence but when someone is given the "great honor" of holding an important secret it cripples the purpose of keeping said information under wraps.
Let's say you've given delicate information that could destroy a very powerful person within your company and somehow the word got out that you are holding said information, though not the information itself. The attention this could bring to you is downright maddening, without mentioning the pressure of your peers and various other people and entities that would use the information for their own, very specific purposes. When you have this much attention over something that, at its very core, was supposed to be kept secret then what's the point of keeping it away from the public anymore?
In a situation such as the one I just described it would seem that it's much, much easier to simply disclose the information and end the smoke and mirror game. But then, if such a secret was only kept that way due to the vital information it's composed of, one so huge it could cause severe repercussions to people or entities that protect your company's assets, what would be the repercussions of divulging it? What would be the ultimate cost?
The definition for "secret" can't be any clearer:
Something that is or is kept secret, hidden or concealed; a classification assigned to information, a document, etc., considered less vital to security than top-secret but more vital than confidential, and limiting its use to persons who have been cleared, as by various government agencies, as trustworthy to handle such material.
To announce someone as "trustworthy" when it comes to the person's ability to keep a secret, you're inviting people to pry deeper. Your enemies will know that this person has information that is vital to you, and if you want it to be kept a secret then it most be important enough that if it fell in the wrong hands it would cause serious damage to both you and the company's integrity. Either scenario is not a favorable one.
In the end, the course of action when it comes to holding vital company information is simple: do not divulge it to the public. Keeping secrets a secret is the first step to creating a steel wall around the company's assets; just like a magician, he will never go around telling the world how he does his tricks. It goes the same with the way companies do their business, only the people who absolutely need to know are the ones who hold that information, as in a need-to-know basis where everyone is aware of their immediate contour and as far as the overall picture is concerned everyone's in a state of ignorant bliss. Secrets in business are always an ill-advised practice, but when it comes to internal conflicts and other instances where the company's guts would be on display for everyone to see, discretion is the order of the day.