Maria works as the Chief Security Officer for PassGuide Inc. She wants to send secret messages to the CEO of the company. To secure these messages, she uses a technique of hiding a secret message…

Public-key cryptography uses asymmetric mathematical key pairs to encrypt or authenticate data, making it unreadable rather than hiding it inside another message.

Steganography is the practice of embedding a hidden message inside an ordinary, non-secret file or message (such as text, image, or audio) so that observers do not know secret communication is occurring. This directly matches the description of 'hiding a secret message within an ordinary message' and is the textbook definition of 'security through obscurity' - the security relies on the secrecy of the method, not a key or algorithm.

The RSA algorithm is a specific asymmetric encryption algorithm used for key exchange and digital signatures, not for concealing a message within an ordinary carrier.

Encryption transforms plaintext into unreadable ciphertext to protect confidentiality, but it does not hide the message inside another ordinary message - the existence of encrypted data is still visible.