Ali Shaikh: I Told Congress How to Regain Real-Time Data Control

I Spoke to Congress About a Simple Problem: We Can’t Govern What We Can’t See

On April 30, 2025, I appeared before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce and its Subcommittee on Communications & Technology for the hearing “Global Networks at Risk: Securing the Future of Telecommunications Infrastructure.”

I went in with one core point:

Data drives the economy. It also creates new attack paths. And right now, too many networks can’t answer basic questions fast enough: What is this traffic? Where is it going? Is it complying with policy the entire way?

What I Asked Congress to Push For

In the statement, I focused on three capabilities the U.S. should accelerate across federal networks and critical infrastructure:‍

1. ‍Real-time oversight
   Continuous visibility into what’s happening on the network, as it happens. Not periodic reports. Not after-the-fact investigations.‍
2. Advanced profiling
   If you can’t reliably identify and classify flows, you can’t apply the right rules. Profiling is how policy becomes enforceable.‍
3. Data sovereignty enforcement
   Regulated data can’t “probably” stay in-bounds. The network should be able to prove it, and enforce it by design.

The “Google Maps for Data” Standard

We’ve all gotten used to real-time location in our daily lives. Networks should work the same way for data: where it is, where it’s headed, and whether it arrived safely and compliantly. That’s the bar now.

Where Graphiant Fits

This is what we build for. Graphiant’s Data Assurance approach is about visibility, control, and compliance at the network layer. Security teams and regulators need to verify what’s true, not make assumptions.

Want the full details? Download my full statement for the record below.

[Download: Statement for the Record (PDF)]

— Ali Shaikh, CEO, Graphiant

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