In security, myths abound. One myth is that simply using buzzwords like “privacy”, “governance” and “consent” solves the problem. In reality, privacy is not a checkbox – it’s a full process.
Information is everywhere in the digital era: it can be located in the cloud, our phones and even in IoT devices. It’s also under constant attack. The advanced threats to steal personal and business data are being led by threat actors. A Times of India report stated that in 2025 alone, India faced over 265 million cyberattacks.
All industries today suffer from malware, phishing and ransomware. In 2024, the global average cost of a data breach rose above $4.88 million, according to IBM. (Cybersecurity Ventures had warned that global cybercrime costs would grow by 15% per year over the next five years, reaching USD 10.5 trillion by 2025. Faced with mounting threat, organisational and regulatory responses include escalating defenses: mandatory breach notification, more stringent data protection legislation (such as the DPDP Act 2023 in India and the GDPR in the EU), and enhanced incident response procedures.
AI and Chatbots: Friend or Foe?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, AI tools assist us to identify anomalies and prevent attacks quickly. On the flipside, AI can enable attackers to create increasingly intelligent threats. Indeed, 85% of cybersecurity experts are attributing the recent surge in attacks to the misuse of generative AI.
The worst thing is that AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini can unknowingly reveal sensitive information. As Stanford researchers of a 2025 study put it: “If you share sensitive information in a dialogue with ChatGPT… it may be collected and used for training”. In other words, our private chats can become fodder for AI unless we are extremely careful. This highlights a critical point: Simply saying “data will be deleted” or relying on vague privacy policies is not enough. We must use end-to-end encryption for chats, anonymise data, and opt out of training whenever possible.
Quantum Threat: The Coming Storm
The global cybersecurity landscape is entering a critical transition driven by advances in quantum computing. Future quantum machines are expected to break widely used public-key cryptography such as RSA and ECC, threatening the confidentiality of financial systems, digital identities, government communications, and sensitive enterprise data. The risk already exists through the “harvest now, decrypt later” model, where encrypted data is collected today for future decryption. Consequently, quantum readiness has become a strategic priority worldwide and organisations have come up with solutions to protect the current encrypted data with Quantum Safe Encryption.
While Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) offers theoretically secure key exchange, its dependence on specialised optical infrastructure, dedicated links, and limited scalability restricts adoption to niche, high-assurance environments. Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNG) and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) offer a more realistic long-term direction, in contrast. QRNG provides actual quantum entropy, and instantiates encryption with a stronger key generation, whereas PQC substitutes vulnerable algorithms with quantum-resistant cryptography that can be directly integrated with existing internet, cloud, and enterprise systems.
The sustainable approach to quantum security therefore lies in a layered model: QRNG for trusted randomness, PQC for scalable quantum-resilient encryption, hardware roots of trust for key protection, and selective QKD where ultra-secure links are required. Combined, QRNG and PQC make crypto-agility and long-term data protection possible in the post-quantum world.
Confidential Computing and Runtime Protection
Another blind spot is data-in-use – information actively being processed (e.g. in memory during computation). Traditional security covers data at rest (disk encryption) and in transit (TLS), but forgets data when it’s “live” in apps and AI models. This gap is exactly what Confidential Computing fills. Confidential computing uses hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) so data stays encrypted even while being computed. This is becoming especially crucial for AI and cloud services.
Confidential computing also powers confidential AI. For instance, AI companies can host models in TEEs so inputs (which may be sensitive) are never exposed to the cloud provider. This means enterprises can leverage AI innovation while keeping proprietary or personal data locked down. In short, to trust AI, we must embrace hardware-enforced privacy at runtime.
Beyond Encryption: What Privacy Really Means
In security, myths abound. One myth is that simply using buzzwords like “privacy”, “governance” and “consent” solves the problem. In reality, privacy is not a checkbox – it’s a full process. Merely clicking “I agree” or writing a policy isn’t privacy. As one expert blog on Medium puts it: Consent is often a “misconceived proxy for data privacy”. Real privacy requires hard work: minimising data collection, securing data at every phase, and building systems with privacy by design.
Protection is at the heart of privacy. Laws around the world reflect this: India’s Data Protection Act explicitly mandates that fiduciaries must protect data with “reasonable security safeguards”, and the EU’s GDPR similarly requires controllers to implement encryption and pseudonymization. In other words, encryption and access controls enable privacy, but we also need encryption at the sensitive field level.
Consider the Data Protection Lifecycle: from collection (with purpose limitation and consent), to processing (secure computing and masking), to storage (strong encryption at rest), to deletion. Each step must be governed and monitored. For example, the DPDP Act makes data controllers accountable for breaches. Privacy is truly achieved only when this entire chain is locked down. Just having a checkbox for consent or a vague “governance framework” isn’t enough – we must continuously protect and verify the data.
Building Trust with Security: Key Takeaways
The ever-growing threats to our world -- ransomware, rogue AI, impending quantum hacks -- all require a new way of thinking. To start with, we must have end-to-end security: encrypt data at rest, during transit, and in use; and isolate sensitive operations in secure enclaves. Second, embrace transparency and audit: log all access, monitor data flows, and mandate breach reporting. Third, promote zero-code or transparent encryption where possible, so developers don’t have to rewrite applications to protect data. And lastly, understand that, privacy is not about a single law or functionality, but a holistic approach.
Today, as the leader of a cyber security firm, I recommend to apply these lessons daily. My journey taught me that with perseverance and the right tools like zero-code encryption, tokenisation, data masking, confidential computing and PQ cryptography, we can outthink even the smartest attackers. Ultimately, security is the foundation of privacy and trust. We owe it to our users – and to ourselves – to go well beyond slogans, and secure data at every stage. Only then can we claim to truly protect privacy in the digital age.
The author is CEO, Jisa Softech. Views expressed are personal.
Sources
Recent reports and expert analyses underscore these points, from India’s 2025 cyber threat figures and Stanford’s chatbot privacy research to industry studies on AI and quantum risks. International law (GDPR, DPDP) likewise emphasizes technical safeguards over mere consent, reflecting the need for concrete protection measures in achieving privacy.
India records 265 million cyber attacks in 2025: Report - The Times of India
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/india-records-265-million-cyber-attacks-in-2025-report/articleshow/125772984.cms
Top Cybersecurity Statistics: Facts, Stats and Breaches for 2025
https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/cybersecurity-statistics
Study exposes privacy risks of AI chatbot conversations | Stanford Report
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/10/ai-chatbot-privacy-concerns-risks-research
8 Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Risks [+ Protection Tips] - Palo Alto Networks
https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-quantum-computings-threat-to-cybersecurity
India Reveals National Plan for Quantum-Safe Security
https://thequantuminsider.com/2026/02/09/india-reveals-national-plan-for-quantum-safe-security/
How confidential computing protects 'data-in-use' for AI environments | perspective | SC Media
https://www.scworld.com/perspective/how-confidential-computing-protects-data-in-use-for-ai-environments
Shaping the Future of Data Sharing: The Role of Privacy Enhancing Technologies | by Kush Kanwar | Silence Laboratories | Medium
https://medium.com/silence-laboratories/shaping-the-future-of-data-sharing-the-role-of-privacy-enhancing-technologies-048a49fa4262
meity.gov.in
https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2024/06/2bf1f0e9f04e6fb4f8fef35e82c42aa5.pdf
Sources
Recent reports and expert analyses underscore these points, from India’s 2025 cyber threat figures and Stanford’s chatbot privacy research to industry studies on AI and quantum risks. International law (GDPR, DPDP) likewise emphasizes technical safeguards over mere consent, reflecting the need for concrete protection measures in achieving privacy.
India records 265 million cyber attacks in 2025: Report - The Times of India
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/india-records-265-million-cyber-attacks-in-2025-report/articleshow/125772984.cms
Top Cybersecurity Statistics: Facts, Stats and Breaches for 2025
https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/cybersecurity-statistics
Study exposes privacy risks of AI chatbot conversations | Stanford Report
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/10/ai-chatbot-privacy-concerns-risks-research
8 Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Risks [+ Protection Tips] - Palo Alto Networks
https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-quantum-computings-threat-to-cybersecurity
India Reveals National Plan for Quantum-Safe Security
https://thequantuminsider.com/2026/02/09/india-reveals-national-plan-for-quantum-safe-security/
How confidential computing protects 'data-in-use' for AI environments | perspective | SC Media
https://www.scworld.com/perspective/how-confidential-computing-protects-data-in-use-for-ai-environments
Shaping the Future of Data Sharing: The Role of Privacy Enhancing Technologies | by Kush Kanwar | Silence Laboratories | Medium
https://medium.com/silence-laboratories/shaping-the-future-of-data-sharing-the-role-of-privacy-enhancing-technologies-048a49fa4262
meity.gov.in
https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2024/06/2bf1f0e9f04e6fb4f8fef35e82c42aa5.pdfSources
Recent reports and expert analyses underscore these points, from India’s 2025 cyber threat figures and Stanford’s chatbot privacy research to industry studies on AI and quantum risks. International law (GDPR, DPDP) likewise emphasizes technical safeguards over mere consent, reflecting the need for concrete protection measures in achieving privacy.
India records 265 million cyber attacks in 2025: Report - The Times of India
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/india-records-265-million-cyber-attacks-in-2025-report/articleshow/125772984.cms
Top Cybersecurity Statistics: Facts, Stats and Breaches for 2025
https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/cybersecurity-statistics
Study exposes privacy risks of AI chatbot conversations | Stanford Report
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/10/ai-chatbot-privacy-concerns-risks-research
8 Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Risks [+ Protection Tips] - Palo Alto Networks
https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-quantum-computings-threat-to-cybersecurity
India Reveals National Plan for Quantum-Safe Security
https://thequantuminsider.com/2026/02/09/india-reveals-national-plan-for-quantum-safe-security/
How confidential computing protects 'data-in-use' for AI environments | perspective | SC Media
https://www.scworld.com/perspective/how-confidential-computing-protects-data-in-use-for-ai-environments
Shaping the Future of Data Sharing: The Role of Privacy Enhancing Technologies | by Kush Kanwar | Silence Laboratories | Medium
https://medium.com/silence-laboratories/shaping-the-future-of-data-sharing-the-role-of-privacy-enhancing-technologies-048a49fa4262
meity.gov.in
https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2024/06/2bf1f0e9f04e6fb4f8fef35e82c42aa5.pdf