Founder & CTO, Sovrata · Founder of SureDrop

Rob Linton

I build data infrastructure that keeps secrets. Thirty years of it: a systems-integration CTO in the 2000s, one of the first AWS practitioner books in 2011, an encrypted file-sharing company that Senetas acquired, and now Sovrata, the AI data-governance venture out of Senetas, whose platform governs what AI is allowed to read.

If you are not cleared to open a document, neither is your AI assistant.

The record →About →Writing →
Rob Linton: studio portrait, arms crossed, black t-shirt and glasses
  • AWS Community Hero, 2015
  • Two-time Australian iAwards winner
  • Packt AWS author, 2011
  • Patent pending, sole inventor
  • Australian land-speed record holder
  • every claim cited →

The Data Pressure Index

the metrics →

A single daily number for the pressure AI is putting on enterprise data, net of how fast governance is catching up. Built from public, hard sources; an argument, not a prediction.

+1.17standard deviations · Elevated band · collecting daily since 14 August 2026open the index →
Higher is worse: more pressure on data, governance further behind.
2.00.14-1.7live data from 14 Aug 2026Apr '24Jul '25Aug '26Nov '26
Index level in standard deviations since 2024. Higher means more pressure on enterprise data: AI capability, adoption and threat activity running ahead of governance. Zero is the index's own long-run middle; below zero, governance is ahead. History to the left of today is reconstructed; the live archive builds forward.

The AI Governance Registry

the registry →

A curated, referenced list of official AI-governance publications, each a real linked document you can open. Its growth is the index's governance counterweight, and a source of truth in its own right.

  • 2026-10-23Managing AI token consumption for operational resilienceAustralian Signals Directorate, Australian Cyber Security Centre
  • 2026-10-15AI considerations within the EssentialsAustralian Signals Directorate, Australian Cyber Security Centre
  • 2026-09-11Agentic AI harnessesAustralian Signals Directorate, Australian Cyber Security Centre
  • 2026-09-10ASD releases new guidance on the agentic AI harnessesAustralian Signals Directorate, Australian Cyber Security Centre
open the full registry →

Latest writing

all essays →

Governed AI data ·

GTC Berlin 2026: off to Germania in a Roman helmet

I'll be at NVIDIA GTC Berlin, 20 to 22 October, helmet and all. An AI agent with a valid login is an insider, so check what it can read at the data.

Governed AI data ·

None shall pass!

Breach statements follow the Black Knight's script: a scratch, a flesh wound, a draw. Log every read at the data, so the first count is closer to the last.

Governed AI data ·

AI agent access control: the only "no" that holds

Three cases that surfaced in September 2026 show an AI agent treats a refusal as an obstacle. The only no that holds sits at the data, with nothing behind it.

Sovereign data ·

Data custody: Taiwan asked where home is five years early

Where is home? A Taiwanese utility put SureDrop on premises as the world moved to cloud. Now the CLOUD Act, EU law, hyperscalers and AI vendors ask the same.

From the notes

all notes →

Denmark's biggest ID breach was caught by the invoice · · re: Omfattende uautoriseret adgang til borgeres CPR-oplysninger

Short takes on the day's news: one cited source, one opinion, most days.