It is actually less secure because of the way a client RUNNING ON the hidden SSID network communicates. That traffic, to someone really trying, if sniffed, can speed up the intrusion process, rather than slow it down. The best practice is to simply broadcast it, and lock it down, at the least. For the best protection (though like was mentioned this does suck for people trying to use it outside of your regular users), use MAC filtering. At least day to day though you wont have any issues. Though some people would also say this is of no use because a MAC can be spoofed, which is true, but it can't hurt.
The ONLY benefit to hiding a network is not if you really want to keep it SECURE, but if you just generally want it hidden. Out of sight out of mind as they say. For example we have a wireless network in this building for IT staff, and some of the upper management and partner staff to use with thier laptops and iphones. The general employees dont know about it and rather than them constantly tryign to connect to it, or asking IT if they can have access so they can listen to Pandora radio without using thier data, we just hide it. The general population will not look for access to something they cannot see. MUCH easier. The network itself is secure even if it is hacked anyway, it cannot access any internal systems, it goes straight to the internet.
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