Encryption is at a crossroads: which way is your data going to go?

Your data protection tools must be made for the times

The year is 46 BC.

You’re Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar, and it’s time to send a secret message to a general. You use a classic shift cipher, where each character in the text is replaced by another, based on a shift across the alphabet. A becomes C, F becomes H, etc.

The code is simple and successful, and you become a legend.

The year is 2006.

You are Bernardo Provenzano, head of the infamous Corleonesi clan of the Sicilian mafia, and it’s time to send a secret message to a lieutenant. You use the classic Caesar Shift, so named after the Emperor.

Your code is simple, but it is not successful. You’re arrested, all your secret pizzini messages are decoded, and you receive 20 life sentences in jail.

The year is 2025.

Customers, regulators, and underwriters all want to know more about your unstructured data strategy. You’ve been relying on tried-and-true best practices, but it’s time to ask yourself: Is your encryption thinking up to date?

The next data protection decision you make may define everything that follows.  Why?

• Threats are multiplying 

  This one is straightforward.  Attackers are hard at work, just as always, and their tools and tactics are becoming increasingly sophisticated. (Hopefully, you can say the same about your security team.)
  

• Rules are tightening

  Compliance and privacy frameworks have long regarded encryption as a recommended best practice; however, the requirements are becoming more stringent.  Whether it’s the recent updates to the HIPAA security rule or the Executive Order on sensitive data sharing, encryption is now a requirement in nearly every security and privacy framework.
  

• AI security is data security

  Whether you’re building from foundational models or simply leveraging an AI-enabled SaaS, protecting sensitive data is crucial for achieving the right business and technical outcomes.  If the data isn’t protected, it can’t be productive, regardless of how sophisticated your AI pipelines or secure MLOps strategies become.
  

No matter what you’re building, everything starts with smarter, stronger security.  It’s time to leave yesterday’s encryption behind and begin to build for what comes next.

Answering the challenge: where encryption needs to go next

So, exactly what does the next generation of encryption solutions look like?  Sure, they have to be stronger, faster, and smarter–but what does all that really mean?

Granularity: precision makes all the difference

Traditional file-level encryption requires you to either lock the entire document or implement complex processes to locate and extract sensitive data. These workarounds can get exhausting and expensive. File duplication, complex ETL processes, and even manual encryption all slow down the process.

Confidencial automates granular, object-level encryption that can be matched to role-based access controls and other policy actions, enabling you to automatically grant access to encrypted information to authorized users, be they human or agentic.

Collaboration & usability: data is most valuable when it’s in use

Collaborating around encrypted files can feel like trying to rearrange furniture that’s bolted to the floor. Everybody might eventually find a seat, but it takes a long time and generates more frustration than is required. That’s all-or-nothing encryption.

Confidencial’s granular selective encryption lets you secure sensitive fields in a document while preserving file format and enabling it to be easily shared. Teams don’t have to slow down to collaborate securely–automated, rule-based encryption keeps teams moving and enables data to create value.

Data discovery: detect and defend all at once

As the volume and variety of enterprise data soar, finding sensitive data gets harder, especially when it’s unstructured. Once it’s found, it must be analyzed and classified so stakeholders can understand both its value and associated risks. Typically, a new platform is then used to protect it. Not very efficient in either time or dollars.

Confidencial brings discovery, classification, and defense together inside a single platform that seamlessly detects and protects your sensitive data. No more gaps or overlaps.  Or, if you have a discovery engine you absolutely love, Confidencial is the perfect complement.

Policy enforcement: Add revocable encryption to your toolbox

The more valuable your crown jewels, the more you need defense in depth, and every control that slows or thwarts attackers also increases Zero Trust adherence. It also allows you to bring better or different controls to bear when the risk demands it. Static file encryption doesn’t do that.

But Confidencial does.

By plugging into your IDP, Confidencial lets you combine RBAC and policy to dynamically and intelligently defend sensitive data. The right users gain access to the data, while unauthorized users receive robust encryption. Additionally, if the system is unsure whether to trust the user at any point, extra defenses can be enabled.

Visibility & Auditability: see it, defend it, explain it

You’ve probably heard or said it before: you can’t protect what you can’t see.  And you can’t demonstrate, when underwriters or regulators ask, how you defend your most critical assets.  It leaves too much risk — and too much opportunity. This is why visibility is fundamental to everything.

Confidencial shines a powerful beam of light into every corner of your environment, from on-premises stores to your multicloud. And, once the sensitive data is detected, classified, and encrypted, you get visibility into everything that happens to it, even when it leaves the environment.  And, when stakeholders come knocking, you have the audit trail you need.

Portability: embed security that stays with the data

Traditional data protection controls are tied to an environment or perimeter. Whether it’s a fully encrypted local disk or the promises of your cloud provider, data security is still too focused on the container, not the contents. Your data protection relies on many other people getting everything right.

Confidencial encryption is persistent, staying in place even when files leave your environment, protecting sensitive information while also powering business-critical collaboration, AI pipelines, and agentic workflows. When an authorized user accesses the file, decryption is automatic, and every single user and event is tracked.

Risk reduction: defend against more threats at once

Traditional data security has focused on networks and perimeters, protecting information when it’s both at rest and in transit, typically using different systems and solutions. Unfortunately, when attackers do make off with data, and they do, those perimeter and network defenses become powerless.

Confidencial’s persistent and portable encryption never leaves the file, and it can only be revoked by the organization, not users.  If data is the new perimeter, Confidencial is on the front line, forever vigilant.

Post-Quantum Readiness: Not Here Yet, but Do You Really Want to Be Surprised?

You have enough near-term risks in front of you. Is it really time to start worrying about quantum computing’s impact on encryption?  The answer is yes—but with a big disclaimer. Currently, threats to the prevailing encryption standards are still mostly theoretical; however, the conversation about their practical impacts has begun.

Confidencial’s encryption strategy provides unprecedented precision, speed, and agility, all of which are essential for addressing the challenges of PCQ encryption. While many specifics regarding the future roadmap and timeline of PCQ remain unclear, proactively mitigating risk always pays significant dividends.

Risk and opportunity are both evolving fast–can your encryption strategy keep pace?

Just like you probably can’t possibly imagine relying on a 2000-year-old code to secure your data, trusting 50-year-old encryption isn’t much smarter, especially when you’re facing attackers working overtime to design new ways to defeat your toughest technical and human defenses.

This is especially true for AI, which either thrives or fails based on the data used to build, train, and tune it. Attackers and regulators are watching your most critical workflows, waiting for a mistake that exposes sensitive data, systems, or both. They’re ready to move forward–which way is your encryption headed?

Confidencial is part of the unstructured data protection strategy that keeps you moving forward, not backwards, no matter what comes next.

Which way are you going, and what about your data?  See what Confidencial’s selective encryption can do for you and your sensitive data.