India on Monday launched
a software called "e-secure", at a seminar in Delhi
to raise privacy standards in the Indian BPO companies
and counter security threats to the Business Process
Industry.
The product a collaborative effort of
Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Call
Centre Association of India (CCAI) and Secure
Synergy aims to bridge the security gaps and
provide reassurance to the foreign companies
wishing to outsource their processes to India, as
well as domestic clients.
"E-secure is actually creating a bench-mark and
will be a certification which will ensure that the
process that we have are audited, reviewed and
recreated in various organizations to ensure that
whatever we have bench-marked is actually
according to global standards," said Sam Chopra,
President, Call Centre Association of India.
Priced at an affordable rate of 91 dollars,
industry leaders say e-secure will be able to
bring down e-crimes effectively.
The BPO scandal rocked the industry on June 23
when the Sun tabloid reported in Britain that one
of its reporters bought British bank details from
a Delhi-based ex-call centre worker.
India's call centres were first hit in April by
a 400,000 dollars online credit card fraud
involving three ex-MphasiS employees, who police
said enticed Citibank customers to part with
personal identification numbers.
In London, Barclays, one of the banks whose
data was said to be leaked, said the information
did not come from its own operation but probably
from a third party that requires customers to
provide bank details in sales transactions.
Citibank, ABN Amro, Standard Chartered and HSBC
are among financial giants that employ thousands
of workers in India to serve global customers.
HSBC was among those whose data was said to be
stolen in the Sun's sting report.
The Sun said the institutions targeted included
many of Britain's top banks such as HSBC,
Barclays, and Lloyds TSB. It added the call centre
worker claimed he could provide 200,000 account
details a month-including those of U.S.
citizens.
While industry officials said security measures
were in place, investors felt security concerns
could cause a short-term slowdown for outsourcing
firms that employ 350,000 workers.
ISO 7799 which provided a well-engineered
structure for information security management has
also been revamped with increased security threats
to the Industry.
Till date 134 companies in India have been
given the 7799 compliance.
"Today it has been revamped as ISO 27,001. This
gives a kind of framework, a base lining for an
organization, what kind of security processions
they are having. So it has various domains. There
are 11 domains in the new framework that is
27,001.
Till yesterday it was 7799 which addressed 10
domains but it has now been revamped seeing the
present security postures and security concerns it
has got added to 11 domains. By going through the
certification like 9001 what you are trying to see
is where are you in the quality process same way
by 27,001 what you are trying to bring out is what
is the security posture and what kind of position
or baseline frame work you have to put in place in
the organization," said Vivek Gupta, IBM.
About 350,000-call centre workers and
back-office agents are employed in India working
for about a fifth of Western wages.
Industry officials say employees are frisked
and banned from carrying hand phones, papers, pens
or cameras that could be used to steal data that
can be used in credit card or bank frauds.
Workers also undergo background checks, sign
non-disclosure agreements and attend courses on
guarding customer secrecy.
Helped by cheap telecoms and English speakers
employed at a fifth of Western wages, India's 5.2
billion dollar back-office exports are expected to
jump 40 percent in the year to March 2006.
In recent years, many British and U.S.
businesses particularly in financial services have
"outsourced" thousands of back-office jobs to
India to save money on wages. (ANI)
