Bridging old-world trust with new-age tech

I’ve sat in countless enterprise customer security reviews. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned... Security conversations don’t start with tech. They start with trust. And often, I play the role of translator, bridging what customers say with what they mean, and what we must deliver. They say: "How do you secure your AI?" They mean: "Is my data protected from model misuse, drift, or exposure?" We deliver: AI governance. Prompt injection defense. Training data controls. They say: "Are you SOC 2 certified?" They mean: "Can I trust your ops won’t put my brand on the line?" We deliver: Control maturity. Real-world audits. Not just checkboxes, evidence. They say: "Do you encrypt data at rest and in transit?" They mean: "Can I trust you won’t drop the ball, ever?" We deliver: End-to-end encryption, yes, but also access logic, secrets hygiene, and alerting. They say: “How do you manage third-party and SaaS risk?” They mean: “Can I trust your ecosystem won’t become my exposure?” We deliver: Vendor risk intelligence. API monitoring. Continuous assessment of supply chain security. The Critical Shift: Modern security demands more than protection, it requires timing and context. In today's landscape of: • AI-driven systems • Cloud-native development • Real-time data processing We must: • Start security early (shift left) • Monitor continuously (shift right) • Enforce intelligently • Guide proactively Security teams are no longer just protectors, we're strategic enablers. Success lies in alignment: • With people • With processes • With purpose So next time a customer asks, “Are you secure?”, don’t just respond. Translate. Empathize. Deliver. Because behind every question...is a quiet hope that you’ll rise to the moment. #CISO #CIO #ShiftLeftShiftRight #AITrust #SecureByDesign #CustomerConfidence #SecurityLeadership #ComplianceIsNotEnough #ModernSecurity

Trust has always been the glue of any functioning society, but historically, it was rooted in direct human perception: we trusted what we could see, hear, feel, and verify with our own senses, as well as the reputation and consistency of others. The digital era already strained this: when most interactions moved online, we lost our full sensory toolkit and leaned almost entirely on visual perception, the image, the video, the text, to decide what’s real. It worked because we assumed photos don’t lie, videos show what happened, and a “realistic” look signals authenticity. Generative AI breaks that last pillar. When you can’t trust your eyes alone, because anything can be synthetically created to look “real”, the burden shifts from perception to verification. So the new trust model is:          • Not what you see is what you get, but what you can prove is what you can trust.          • Not your senses, but the systems you rely on: provenance, credentials, reputation, technical proofs.          • Not a passive act, but an active practice: constant checking, validating, and re-checking. In this sense, the big shift isn’t that trust is new, it’s that its foundation is moving from our senses to our systems. We’ve never had to outsource trust to technology at this scale before. That’s what’s fundamentally different now. #TrustInTheDigitalAge #ContentAuthenticity #VerifyDontTrust #SeeingIsNotBelieving #ProvenanceMatters #visualcontent #visualtech

VC Diaries - 17 : Thanks to our Govt and Jio, we have built the world's best digital highways - the next unicorns will be the companies that teach India how to drive on them. For the last decade, we were rightly obsessed with building the India Stack and scaling it. We created the digital rails for identity, payments, and data. But we are now realising that building the infra was only half the job. The assumption that access automatically leads to confident adoption was flawed. The next frontier is not technological, but behavioural. We need to build a 'behavioural infra stack' on top of the digital one. Think about UPI. It's a technical masterpiece. Yet, millions of small merchants still ask customers to show the 'payment successful' screen. This isn't a sign of failure. It's a new, user-generated ritual created to replace the old sensory confirmation of receiving a physical note. It's a fallback norm that bridges the gap between the coldness of tech and the human need for trust. The startups that win from here will be masters of this behavioural layer. They will understand that their job is not just to provide a service, but to shape habits. This means using intelligent nudges to guide users towards better financial health. It means using vernacular explainers that use local metaphors to demystify complex products like insurance. It means designing new rituals that make digital interactions feel as safe and familiar as offline ones. Stop thinking only about your tech stack. Start thinking about your behavioural stack. Your biggest product challenge is no longer about APIs and uptime. It's about understanding the anxieties, aspirations, and deep-seated cultural norms of your user. The first wave of Digital India was an engineering problem. This next, more valuable wave is a human one. The real whitespace is in building the tools that give hundreds of millions of Indians the confidence to navigate this new digital world. What do you think? Do share below in the comments. I have started to share my learnings as a VC more proactively here, with a note coming out every morning 8.30am. And I would love to get inputs. Thanks, Anuradha | Dexter Ventures

We are entering an era where the boundaries between technologies are dissolving. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, blockchain, biotechnology, and space technologies are converging into powerful ecosystems that transcend traditional sectors. This convergence promises breakthroughs with the potential to transform industries, redefine economies, and extend human capabilities. Yet, it also raises profound questions: how can societies build trust in systems that are increasingly complex, interconnected, and opaque? The fusion of AI and quantum computing will accelerate problem-solving power to levels previously unimaginable. The combination of blockchain and IoT can create tamper-proof ecosystems for connected devices, ensuring transparency and accountability. The integration of space infrastructure with advanced telecommunications is enabling global connectivity, bridging digital divides, and strengthening resilience in critical infrastructures. When orchestrated thoughtfully, these synergies unlock innovations that no single technology could deliver alone. But with great convergence comes great risk. As technologies intertwine, vulnerabilities multiply. A flaw in one layer can cascade across entire ecosystems. Citizens, businesses, and governments are increasingly asking: who controls the data? How is it being used? Can we trust the algorithms that shape decisions about our health, our finances, or our freedoms? Trust has become the true currency of the digital age. Without it, adoption falters, innovation stalls, and society resists. The erosion of trust is visible in the skepticism toward AI systems, in data breaches that undermine confidence in institutions, and in geopolitical battles over technological sovereignty. To navigate this new reality, trust must be designed into technology from the start, not patched on as an afterthought. Transparency is essential to ensure that algorithms and infrastructures are explainable, auditable, and accountable. Security must be embedded through post-quantum cryptography, secure chips, and zero-trust architectures to safeguard the next generation of networks. Ethics must guide innovation, integrating human values to guarantee fairness, dignity, and inclusivity. Governance must evolve toward global cooperation, preventing fragmentation and creating standards that transcend borders. The convergence of technologies has the potential to build a future of unprecedented opportunity. But the foundation of this future must be trust: trust in systems, trust in institutions, and ultimately, trust between people. Technology alone cannot create trust. Trust is a social contract—earned through transparency, maintained through accountability, and strengthened through shared values. If trust becomes the cornerstone of convergence, technology will not only advance but will also elevate humanity. Transhumancode.com