HomeUse CasesUse Case Name
IP Protection

The IP that took a decade to build takes one download to lose.

Drug formulations. Legal work product. Financial models. Clinical protocols. Every day, your most valuable IP leaves your systems, shared with CDMOs, outside counsel, advisors, and AI tools. Confidencial embeds selective encryption directly into the file so protection follows the data. Not just where your perimeter ends.

CONFIDENCIALSELECTIVE ENCRYPTION ACTIVEPhase III Clinical Trial ProtocolDocument ID: CT-2024-0847   |   Version 3.2SponsorMeridian BioSciences Inc.Principal InvestigatorDr. Sarah Chen, MD PhDCompoundENCRYPTED FIELD🔒Trial DesignRandomized, double-blind, placebo-controlledPrimary endpoint: PFS at 24 months vs. standard of carePatient IDENCRYPTEDSiteMemorial Cancer Center, BostonDosage FormulaENCRYPTED FIELD — Proprietary formulationRegulatory StatusIND Application: #2024-IND-04471   |   FDA Fast TrackEMA parallel review pending   |   Phase III enrollment open2 fields encryptedAccess: Read-only
83%

of organizations reported an insider attack in 2024

Cybersecurity Insiders, 2024 Insider Threat Report

$4.7M

average cost per malicious insider incident

Ponemon, 2026

38%

of breaches involved compromised credentials

Verizon DBIR, 2024

292

days to identify and contain a credential-based breach

IBM Cost of a Breach, 2024

Three ways regulated IP walks out the door

Not through a breach. Through the engagement, the collaboration, the shortcut. Each one a permanent transfer of competitive and regulatory value you can’t see and can’t reverse.

Situation 01
The contractor who kept the file

The CDMO engagement ends. The outside counsel matter closes. The advisor’s NDA expires. You revoke SharePoint, but the synthesis route, the deal memo, and the model’s source code are still fully readable on hardware you’ve never touched. The IP left the building the moment they hit download. Your perimeter never knew.

Situation 02
The prompt that cost a decade of R&D

Three seconds. A drug formulation, a litigation strategy, a proprietary scoring model, pasted into an AI tool for a faster answer. It’s now in an inference log your legal team cannot subpoena and your compliance team cannot audit. In pharma, that’s a trade secret event. In financial services, that’s an MNPI risk. In both cases, you may never know it happened.

Situation 03
The data room that never really closed

M&A diligence, licensing negotiations, regulatory submissions: each one moves proprietary files across organizations, advisors, and jurisdictions at speed. When the deal closes or collapses, there is no cryptographic record of who accessed which fields. No chain of custody for litigation. No evidence of control for the FDA, SEC, or SRA if they come asking.

Five steps from exposed to protected

From first scan to full coverage. No re-architecture. No new workflows for your team.

01  Discover

Find what is at risk before it moves

Confidencial scans OneDrive, Google Drive, SharePoint, S3, and on-premises shares. Built-in classifiers surface sensitive IP across your environment automatically.

02  Protect

Encrypt only the fields that matter

Selective encryption targets specific fields, formulas, or visuals inside a document. A manufacturer sees dimensions. They do not see the formula. Collaboration continues.

03  Control

Enforce access by role, project, or time

Policy-based controls determine who sees what and under what conditions. Time-limited access, role-restricted visibility, geo-locked permissions. No one gets more than they need.

04  Revoke

Pull access back after the file has left

Because encryption travels with the data, Confidencial revokes access from any device at any time. The engagement ends. The access ends with it. No device touch required.

05  Block

Stop IP from entering AI pipelines

AI Guard intercepts and redacts sensitive content before it reaches AI prompts, training datasets, or vector databases. Teams keep their AI tools. Your IP stays out of them.

Your stack was built to defend the perimeter, but IP leaves the perimeter.

DLP, DSPM, and full-file encryption each solve part of the problem. None of them protect the data once it moves. Confidencial does.

Scenario
DLP
DSPM
Full-file encryption
Confidencial
File downloaded to external device
Protection ends at the perimeter. Local copy is uncontrolled.
Visibility only. Cannot control what happens after download.
~File locked but unusable for collaboration. Breaks workflow.
Selective encryption travels with the file. The right people see what you allow; the wrong people see nothing.
Contractor engagement ends
Access to cloud storage revoked. Local copy is untouched and permanent.
No enforcement capability. Classification does not revoke access.
No remote revocation. Decryption key may already be cached locally.
Access revoked remotely, instantly. Encrypted fields lock on any device.
Sensitive IP enters an internal AI pipeline or copilot
~Some tools block uploads. Cannot intercept clipboard or AI prompts.
No protection at the prompt layer. Exposure is invisible.
Once decrypted for the user, content can be copied and pasted freely.
Sensitive data stripped before the model sees it. Semantic structure preserved.
Prove ownership in litigation
~Access logs show folder-level activity. Cannot prove field-level access.
~Data map shows where IP lives. No cryptographic chain of custody.
No audit trail tied to specific content. File-level only.
Cryptographic audit trail. Field-level access logged with timestamp and device.
File downloaded to external device
DLP
Protection ends at the perimeter. Local copy is uncontrolled.
DSPM
Discovers exposure after the fact. Cannot reach the device.
Full-file enc.
Recipient decrypted to access. No remote revocation.
Confidencial
Fields locked on device. Access revoked remotely.
Contractor engagement ends
DLP
Cloud access revoked. Local copy: untouched and permanent.
DSPM
Posture tool only. No control over downloaded files.
Full-file enc.
No mechanism to revoke access to local decrypted copy.
Confidencial
Encrypted fields lock on their device instantly on revocation.
Employee pastes IP into AI tool
~
DLP
May block uploads. Cannot intercept clipboard or AI prompts.
DSPM
No visibility into AI workflow layer.
Full-file enc.
File was decrypted for use — content copies freely into prompts.
Confidencial
AI Guard redacts sensitive fields before the prompt is sent.
Prove IP ownership in litigation
~
DLP
Folder-level logs only. Cannot prove field-level access intent.
~
DSPM
Shows where IP lives. No cryptographic chain of custody.
Full-file enc.
File-level only. No trail tied to specific field access.
Confidencial
Cryptographic audit trail. Field-level access with timestamp and identity.

DLP watches the upload. DSPM reads the label. Full-file encryption locks out your own team. None of them follow the data after it leaves your control. Confidencial is the only solution that protects at the field level — on any device, after any download, through any AI tool.

Hard questions. Direct answers.

01

Once a CDMO or outside counsel downloads a file and leaves, can we still protect what’s in it?

Yes. Confidencial’s encryption is embedded in the file, not enforced at the network or storage layer. When the engagement ends, access is revoked at the key level. The synthesis route, matter file, or financial model on their device becomes computationally inaccessible immediately, without requiring an agent on their endpoint or a file return.

02

Our analysts use AI tools to summarize deal documents containing drug formulations and contract IP. How do we prevent sensitive fields from entering the model?

AI Guard protects sensitive data before it reaches AI workflows. Sensitive fields, including formulas, IP schedules, and financial terms, are encrypted or redacted at ingestion. The model summarizes and analyzes the non-sensitive content; protected spans are never exposed in plaintext and cannot be reconstructed from vector embeddings even if the repository is breached.

03

Can we revoke access to a clinical protocol that's already on a CRO's device?

Yes, immediately and remotely. Confidencial’s revocation operates at the cryptographic key level, not the SharePoint permission level. When the CRO engagement ends, you revoke authorization in Confidencial. The encrypted fields on any local copy, including a laptop,  server, or backup, lock instantly. No agent required on their endpoint.

04

If we encrypt sensitive fields in matter files, can co-counsel and experts still work with them?

Yes. Selective encryption protects only the fields you designate, privileged strategy notes, sealed content, client-identifying information, while leaving the document structure, non-sensitive narrative, and formatting fully readable. Co-counsel opens the file in Word or iManage normally. The privileged sections appear encrypted to anyone without the appropriate role-based access.

05

How do we prove IP protection was in place during FDA review, SEC examination, or trade secret litigation?

Confidencial maintains cryptographic audit trails that record who accessed which specific fields, in which document, at what time, and from where. This creates a verifiable chain of custody for clinical data, supports SEC regulatory examination, and provides the field-level evidence required for trade secret misappropriation defense, evidence that folder-level access logs cannot provide.

See what’s already exposed

The question isn’t if they get in. It’s what they leave with.

Drug formulations. Matter files. Valuation models. Clinical protocols. Run a risk assessment to understand which files are protected, which are not, and quantify the risk.