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Data theft fire on Indian BPOs
By siliconindia
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Monday, 09 October 2006, 19:30 IST
London: The Indian BPO industry is fast becoming the whipping boy of the British media and the entire anti-off shoring movement over recent reports of data thefts, reported the Economic Times today. In a series of highly publicised incidents, a recent Channel 4 sting operation about data theft in Indian call centers is shows the ease with personal financial data of Britons could be obtained out of India.
The frenzy may smack of a witch-hunt, considering that in Britain a paper shredder is considered an essential household item, since it helps ensure that bin raiders dont get access to personal mails.
The evidence for the sting operation is in the form of conversations with middlemen making offers to provide an unsuspecting businesswoman with British customers personal data, filmed on secret camera. On offer was leads sensitive, confidential data like credit card details and bank account numbers of Britons. The alleged scam was unearthed during a 12-month probe.
Industry body Nasscom, on behalf of the IT industry filed a complaint. A first information report was also registered with the Criminal Investigation Department of the West Bengal Police in connection with the issue.
Just to put things in perspective, in 05, around 13,000 staff identities of civil servants of HM Revenue & Customs were stolen; the data theft attack also affected employees in the department of works and public affairs as well. As a result, HMRC was forced to close down its online portal.
According to home office estimates, some 6,800 fraudulent tax credit claims, which cost the UK government 2.7m pounds were filed on the basis of this, and another 30,000 are being investigated. The final costs and effect of this theft is still to be estimated, ET said.