Confidencial Named a 2026 SINET16 Honoree for Its Innovative Approach to Sensitive Data Protection

MENLO PARK, Calif., October 12, 2026 — Confidencial.io, the data security company that helps organizations control sensitive information wherever it is shared, stored, or used by AI, today announced the company has been selected as a 2026 SINET16 honoree. Built on patented selective protection technology, Confidencial protects sensitive information within documents while preserving their usability, helping organizations reduce exposure even when documents are shared, misdirected, or stolen.

SINET annually evaluates emerging cybersecurity companies worldwide to identify innovative and compelling technologies. This year’s 16 honorees were selected from 158 applications across 10 countries following two rounds of evaluation by a committee of 100 security professionals, including CISOs, risk executives, government intelligence and defense experts, venture capitalists, and investment bankers.

Reducing the Consequences of An Eventual Breach

Enterprises invest heavily in protecting networks, identities, devices, and applications. But their most sensitive information (contracts, clinical records, financial documents, intellectual property, and employee data) moves between and beyond those environments every day. Once a document is downloaded, forwarded, or shared with a third party, its safety can depend on systems the originating organization no longer controls.

This exposes a critical gap in traditional cybersecurity strategies: preventing an incident is not the same as preventing its consequences. Security leaders must address both sides of the equation: reducing the likelihood of a breach and limiting the damage when one occurs. Keeping attackers out remains essential, but when sensitive information falls into the wrong hands, what matters is whether they can read or exploit it.

Confidencial addresses this second dimension of risk by applying granular, data-layer encryption to sensitive information within documents, rather than encrypting entire files. This keeps protected content inaccessible to unauthorized parties, even if a document is stolen, while preserving usability. By protecting the information itself rather than relying solely on the defenses around it, Confidencial helps organizations reduce breach consequences, from regulatory exposure and litigation to reputational damage and loss of client trust.

“Security leaders have spent decades building stronger defenses around the places their data lives. But you can't protect moving data by chasing where it went,” said Karim Eldefrawy, PhD, co-founder and CTO of Confidencial. “We need to protect the information itself, so that even when it moves beyond those defenses, or those defenses fail, the sensitive content remains protected.”

Protect the Sensitive Content. Preserve the Workflow.

Confidencial identifies sensitive information within documents and applies selective encryption, redaction, or reversible tokenization according to policy. Protection can operate at the field, cell, paragraph, or region level, leaving the rest of the document readable, searchable, and usable in its native format.

Organizations can share documents while controlling which sensitive elements each authorized recipient can access, with the ability to revoke access even after sharing. Protection events and access attempts are logged, providing an auditable record of how sensitive information is secured and accessed, an increasingly important capability as organizations face growing scrutiny over data governance and AI use.

These same controls extend to AI workflows, where sensitive elements can be protected before documents are shared with AI systems and agents. This allows organizations to put their data to work with AI while restricting access to information those systems are not authorized to see.

“Organizations need to share information with customers, partners, counsel, and regulators to conduct business,” said Stewart Walchli, CEO of Confidencial. “Our goal is to make that movement safer without making the information less useful. SINET16 recognition is an important milestone as we bring this approach to more enterprises that need control to continue after a document leaves their systems.”

The SINET16 recognition follows Confidencial’s selection as Overall Encryption Solution of the Year in the 2026 Cybersecurity Breakthrough Awards. Together, the honors underscore Confidencial’s approach to persistent data-layer protection: securing sensitive information wherever it moves while preserving its usability for authorized people, applications, and AI. Additionally, Confidencial also recently won the Thomson Reuters Momentum AI pitch competition, recognizing the company’s approach to protecting sensitive enterprise information while keeping data usable by people, applications, and AI.

Built on DARPA-Funded Research. Deployed in the Enterprise.

Confidencial’s technology originated in DARPA-funded cryptographic research at SRI International, designed to enable coalition partners to share documents while revealing only the information each participant was authorized to see. Confidencial spun out of SRI in 2021 to commercialize that architecture for enterprise data protection. Today, the company holds 12 granted patents, with three more pending.

About Confidencial

Confidencial helps enterprises put sensitive data to work without losing control of it. Built on patented, DARPA-funded cryptographic research from SRI International, Confidencial uses selective encryption to protect sensitive information within documents, files, and data pipelines while preserving native formats and existing business workflows. Protection and access controls travel with the data wherever people, applications, or AI use it, helping organizations collaborate, adopt AI, and share information more securely. The company is privately held and based in Menlo Park, CA.

For more information, visit Confidencial.io.

Media Contact
RedIron PR for Confidencial
Kari Ritacco
kari@redironpr.com