Selective Encryption: From Bold Idea to Proven Standard

Protecting sensitive data has always been at the heart of Confidencial’s mission. From our earliest days, we believed that security shouldn’t stop at the network perimeter. It should travel with the data itself.

That belief has now been recognized in a meaningful way. Confidencial has been named the winner of the CyberSecurity Breakthrough Award for Encryption Innovation - a validation that selective encryption is no longer just an idea. It’s a proven technique for keeping information secure, compliant, and usable in the age of AI.

Why This Recognition Matters

The judging process was rigorous, led by a panel of industry experts who evaluated innovation, performance, ease of use, functionality, value, and impact—with innovation and impact weighted most heavily.

This recognition matters because the judging criteria mirror exactly what our customers demand. In industries where the consequences of failure are measured in billions of dollars, patient safety, or lost client privilege, security solutions can’t just be clever.

They must be innovative enough to address emerging risks, practical enough to fit into existing workflows, usable enough for everyday adoption, and proven to deliver real impact where the stakes are highest.

Innovation at the Core

Innovation has always defined Confidencial. The problem we set out to solve was deceptively simple: How do you share a single document with multiple parties, while allowing each to see only what they’re authorized to access?

Legacy use of encryption couldn’t handle that. It was blunt and inflexible - locking down entire files, breaking workflows, and forcing teams into trade-offs between productivity and security.

Confidencial built a platform that leverages selective encryption to change this.

Sensitive fields are encrypted and access-controlled, while the rest of the file remains fully usable. Combined with document traceability and identity-aware access controls, organizations can now share with clients, regulators, partners, or AI systems with precision, protecting what matters without slowing the business down.

Why It Matters in the AI Era

AI has rewritten the rules of data protection. Once sensitive content is ingested by a large language model, control and privilege are lost permanently. Perimeter defenses were never designed for this risk.

Confidencial takes a different approach. By embedding encryption directly into the file, protection travels with the data—across clouds, between partners, and into new AI-driven workflows. This is what data-centric security and AI governance look like when they’re working as intended.

We’re excited to see Confidencial’s approach, powered by selective encryption, recognized as an innovation today, but in the near future, it will be a table-stakes requirement. Sensitive data will need to be both secure and usable by default.

Looking Ahead

This recognition is meaningful, but it’s also just the beginning.

Our selective encryption approach may be celebrated as an innovation today, but it will soon define the standard for how organizations protect their most valuable data.

The Encryption Innovation Award validates the path we’ve chosen. More importantly, it strengthens our drive to keep pushing forward—so the world’s most sensitive information can remain protected, governed, and ready for the future.

To our customers, partners, and team: thank you for believing in this mission and helping make selective encryption the new standard.

To learn more about Confidencial and see their award-winning technology in action, you can register for their upcoming live product demo.