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It chips in to secure safety. USB CopyNotify! is a green data protection software that alerts owners/administrators to any attempt to sneak data out from an office network. Explains Zarir Karbhari, managing director of the Poona-based CygNET Systems Private Limited that designed and developed the pioneering software: "USB CopyNotify! plugs the data leak that takes place in most offices due to the unauthorized usage of USB devices such as thumb/flash/pen drives. These devices are so small that they are easily carried into office, plugged into any office computer and used to copy confidential data without detection, thus making established data security measures vul­nerable.”

Particularly useful for small and medium businesses that find it difficult to track employees, a key feature of the software is that it logs all data copy operations on USB drives as well as the shutdown or uninstall of the USB CopyNotify! program itself. Alerts are also given out if other removable storage devices like mobile phones, digital cameras or MP3 players are used.

The newest version of USB CopyNotify! also points the cursor towards energy conservation. "The ‘save energy’ alert sends a notification when any computer in the office has been left idle for more than a specified amount of time. These can then be switched off to save power and bring down electricity bills,” Karbhari adds.

Refreshing the scene are two more innovations CygNET plans to release shortly. "GreenNotify and NoWaste are software products concentrating solely on reducing the wastage of electricity by computers and associated devices (printers, for example) connected to them. They have been designed for both personal users as well as corpo­rates,” Karbhari asserts. CygNET Systems’ clients include advertising and media companies, packaging and software firms, financial institutions, government departments, lawyers, chartered accountants, etc, states their profile.

Zarir Karbhari: developing software securities

Born in 1969 in Bombay, the IT (Information Technology) entrepreneur is the youngest of the three children of Maneck Karbhari (originally from Nargol) and Tehmi (née Pestonjee of Kashmir). "My schooling and junior college were at St Vin­cent’s in Poona and my Bachelor in Civil Engineering from Bharati Vidya­peeth’s College of Engineering there. I then completed an Advanced Diploma in Computer Aided Engineering and Finite Elemental Analysis which was conducted in India by AutoDesk (USA),” he relates. Initially working as a freelance consultant and corporate trainer for computer aided design and drafting, Karbhari joined a tech startup as technical lead and then moved on to being the center manager of a computer training institute, all in Poona.

"It was only in 1995 that I decided to start my own company and founded CygNET Systems with the primary focus of providing software programing services to large software development companies based abroad. We have since then serviced over 100 clients from all over the world, logging thousands of software programing hours,” Karbhari states. It was this experience, he adds, that keyed him into the designing and development of pioneering software in 2007.

Scanning the IT vista, Karbhari notes: "Indian companies need to move away from providing software programing services to large software product companies based outside India and concentrate on creating software products themselves. Today we have the edge in IT only because of pricing and our command over the English language.” Soon other countries in south-east Asia as well as China will offer the same advantages and all the work being sent here (by large software companies) will be diverted there, he cautions.

"Our skills are being used to create some of the best software in the world but we are being used only as sweat shops. Let’s stop making great software for others and make it for ourselves instead. It is time we wake up and change before it is too late,” Karbhari programs the future.