Protecting Corporate IP, Sensitive Content and Customer PII with Zero Trust Information and internally controlled AI ingestion.

The artificial intelligence revolution is here, and with it comes an unprecedented acceleration in innovation and efficiency. However, as businesses eagerly adopt large language models (LLMs) and other AI tools, a critical new vector for data privacy and compliance is emerging: the unintentional ingestion of sensitive corporate intellectual property (IP) and customer Personally Identifiable Information (PII) into AI systems.

This isn’t a theoretical threat; it’s happening now. Sensitive data from corporate content repositories, exchanged between employees and third parties, can inadvertently be leaked into AI LLMs, becoming part of their training data, knowledge bases, or even surfacing through chat interfaces.

The Problem: AI's Insatiable Appetite and Uncontrolled Data Flow

Why is this problem growing exponentially? Simply put, AI LLMs are exploding in both offerings and use cases across every industry. This proliferation, combined with a fundamental lack of integrated data encryption and sophisticated content-based risk policies, creates a gaping vulnerability. When sensitive data moves between systems and users without stringent, granular controls, it becomes incredibly vulnerable to unintended ingestion by AI, even if the intention is to use AI responsibly. This is why AI can, unfortunately, become a “bad, bad boy” for your data security.

The Solution: A Multi-Layered Defence with Our Partner, Kiteworks

At Communication Genetics, we partner with Kiteworks, a leader in secure content collaboration, to bring you a comprehensive, multi-layered approach to protecting your sensitive content from AI leaks. Kiteworks is designed to address this newest vector of data privacy and compliance.

1. Double Encryption: The First Line of Defence

Imagine your data being useless to an LLM even if your storage is somehow compromised. Kiteworks achieves this with double encryption on file and disk. Content encrypted while stored in repositories remains protected. Without the decryption keys, this data is completely unusable to an LLM, offering a powerful foundational layer of security.

2. Content-Defined Zero-Trust Controls with a Private Data Network (PDN)

Beyond encryption, Kiteworks extends Zero-Trust principles directly to your content. This means:

Least Privilege Access: Access and use controls are applied based on the sensitivity of the content assets themselves. Employees and third parties are granted “least privilege” access, significantly reducing risk by ensuring they only see and interact with what is absolutely necessary.
Watermarking for Awareness: Specific content can be watermarked, serving as a clear alert to users that this material should not be used in AI LLMs. While content-defined Zero-Trust dramatically reduces risk, this also addresses the caveat that even “allowed” users could technically still ingest sensitive content.

3. View-Only DRM Protection with a PDN: Preventing Downloads

For critical, higher-risk data where downloads must be strictly prevented, Kiteworks offers View-only Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection. By applying a Kiteworks view-only policy, sensitive content cannot be downloaded by the user, effectively blocking its ingestion into AI LLMs while still allowing users to view the necessary information.

4. Next-Gen DRM Protection with a PDN: SafeEDIT for Secure Collaboration

What about collaboration on highly sensitive documents? Kiteworks introduces Next-gen DRM with SafeEDIT*. This innovative approach ensures that business productivity through collaboration can be maintained without the sensitive data ever leaving your network data centre and repository. Instead, an editable video image of the content is streamed to the user, blocking both downloads and copy/paste functions. This means sensitive data never truly “leaves” your secure environment.

Protecting Your Sensitive Content: A Risk-Based Approach

Kiteworks’ solutions allow for a nuanced, risk-based approach to data protection against AI ingestion:

High Risk (Collaboration Required): Utilise Next-gen DRM with SafeEDIT* to block downloads and copy/paste, ensuring data never leaves your repository.
Moderate Risk (Block Download): Implement View-only DRM to transmit information securely while strictly preventing downloads.
Low Risk (Control Access and Warn User): Apply Content-defined Zero-Trust Controls with least-privilege access and watermarks.

The New Compliance Era

We are collectively navigating a new compliance era. Data is pervasive, and robust compliance controls, tracking, and reporting must follow suit wherever that data resides or travels. This requires addressing several critical gaps:

Zero-Trust Gap: Moving beyond perimeter security to a “never trust, always verify” model for all content.
TPRM (Third-Party Risk Management) Gap: Ensuring external partners do not inadvertently become a conduit for data leakage.
Antiquated DRM: Moving past outdated DRM solutions that don’t meet today’s sophisticated threats.
AI as a New Vector: Proactively addressing the unique data protection and privacy challenges posed by AI ingestion.

In an increasingly AI-driven world, safeguarding your corporate IP and customer PII is paramount. Our partnership with Kiteworks ensures you have access to the advanced tools and framework necessary to achieve robust data governance, protecting your sensitive content against this newest, rapidly evolving threat vector.

Ready to fortify your data against the evolving AI threat? Contact Communication Genetics today to learn more about implementing Kiteworks’ powerful protection solutions.

Protecting Corporate IP, Sensitive Content and Customer PII with Zero Trust Information and internally controlled AI ingestion.