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usage - Sudden popularity of: obfuscate, why?



I hope there is a real reason for this and that my question won't be seen as 'primarily opinion based'.


What's the deal with the sudden popularity of the word 'obfuscate' and it's variants?


Ngram shows a pretty big leap in usage of obfuscate and it's variants since the 1960s but personally I've noticed in articles that I've read online recently that more and more articles are using this term.


Is there a reason behind this?


The only reason I can guess is something to do with code and programming (especially ios, android, etc.) but that's pretty much all I got.



Answer



As you thought, the probable reason for the increase in the use use of the word is computers - security, to be precise. In software development, the term "obfuscation" basically means making a mess of your code but making sure it still compiles, which developers do to keep people from stealing their code. It's called security through obscurity, and you'll see websites like Google employing it (on the client side too - look through Google's JavaScript/HTML files in your console - the code is a programmer's nightmare). Similarly, the term is used in network security to refer to methods that get called to obscure an attack and of course prevent anything from being stolen or damaged. In addition, it's used in cryptography, basically the same way in order to protect cryptographic keys. Point is - it's a term used for security.


There are other uses of the word, but this seems to be the only thing that could have stimulated the supposed increase in usage of the word. The next big thing in computers is security, and we know this because security experts are now offered millions of dollars (and I'm not exaggerating) in salaries. With the present obsession with security, I'd imagine you'll hear this word a lot more often.


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