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First, it was Mphasis. Then, the Karan Bahree sting operation by UK tabloid, The Sun. The bogey of data security appears to be rearing its ugly head in right earnest. How can the Indian call-centre industry address this challenge? By Amanpreet Singh The sting operation by UK tabloid The Sun has opened another can of worms, but what is still unclear is where Karan Bahree got his information. The Mphasis episode did raise questions about the security of outsourced data, but all ended well due to the swift recovery of funds. Now, the Karan Bahree incident has again brought the issue of data security to the fore. What's calming frayed nerves, though, is the equanimity displayed by industry bigwigs. Kiran Karnik, President of Nasscom, is almost philosophical: "No matter what systems you put in, it (data security) depends upon the individual." What has helped is the fact that the clients of Indian IT services companies are mostly from the developed world and, therefore, no strangers to such occurrences. They understand that what is happening in India today has already happened in the mature host markets. Billions of dollars of fraud happen all over the world and "it is unfair to link it to offshoring", says R. Venkatraman, Executive Director at KPMG, which partners Nasscom in its ITES reviews. At the same time, though, Venkatraman reckons that the Indian IT industry has been presented with an opportunity to review its security apparatus, and allow Nasscom to set standards for the industry. This may include a Trusted Sourcing Initiative with clients, which allows an independent third party data protection review of the BPO. So, is it about having more rigorous background checks of employees? Karnik does not think that checks lead to anything conclusive as "both the Mphasis and Infinity eSearch agents were first time offenders" he explains. "One thing is clear, we need to educate people that stealing data is probably worse than stealing cash," says T.K. Kurien, CEO at Wipro Spectramind. Data protection and infrastructure controls in the A list BPO companies are probably higher than in the host country but the industry needs to get together and blacklist individuals who have been caught in any violation of data integrity. Karnik suggests putting "enough strong deterrents in place so individuals don't think of transgressing". But financial services will always come with temptations; the only way to minimise risk for a client is to go with "BPO outfits that check out completely and not some mom-and-pop shop", says Kurien. Despite assurances from all quarters that the incidents are only stray ones, and do not impact the viability of India as an outsourcing destination, the matter was serious enough to draw a reaction from the Prime Minister himself. PM Manmohan Singh recently voiced the need for stringent IT laws, and the need to make cyber crime a criminal offence. As India matures as a BPO market, the Indian BPO industry must prepare itself to tackle such incidents head on.
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