India, Sept. 4 -- If you see someone walking through a crowded mall wearing PPE, you might assume they are either extremely cautious or unusually paranoid. If you watch a 1970s Bollywood father locking his daughter away in a distant castle on a remote island to prevent a clandestine marriage, you might laugh while recognising the logic behind his tactic of pre-emptive isolation.

What explains such approaches of physical distance and deliberate isolation in spaces where connections normally fuel both life and mischief? The answer is simple: the instinct for safety and protection from threats that spread easily through excessive connectedness.

In essence, air-gapping is the modern equivalent of a moat around a castle. It is the foam, the ...