CHENNAI: Imagine losing your USB drive with important data while travelling. You can only fret. Four years ago, when Chennai-born Lux Anantharaman, then a researcher specializing in cryptography and security at a government-run lab in Singapore, went through such an ordeal, he decided to do something about it. "In spite of all the security work I was doing, I suddenly felt helpless," says Anantharaman. This experience led to the creation of iTwin, a pair of identical USB drives that share data exclusively between them over any connection without being accessible to any other system. It's a device that lets you access the hard disk of your home computer from anywhere in the world by just inserting one USB drive in the home PC and carrying the other with you. Insert the USB drive you are carrying in any computer and you can access all your files securely and without the need for any third-party software. For iTwin, all you need is internet access. And it costs just about Rs 5,000 ($99). "It is a cable-less cable," says Anantharaman, who's a 1994 IIT-Madras graduate and an Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, post-graduate. "It's easy and secure like a cable for transferring files between two devices, but without the hassle and clutter." No tricky software installations, no lengthy configuration procedures and no complicated logins or passwords. Plug it in and you are ready to go. He teamed up with Kal Takru, his colleague at Singapore's A*STAR and the co-founder, to develop iTwin in Singapore. "We form a great team. While I handle technology, he handles operational aspects." Kal was born in Dehradun and completed his studies in Singapore, where they met. The device was named among the Techcrunch 50, a global list of promising startups, and the duo got their second round of funding last week.
