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Story URL: http://services.silicon.com/offshoring/0,3800004877,39163025,00.htm

Indian call centre security breaches exposed
Offshore industry hits back at undercover TV sting

By Andy McCue

Published: Thursday 05 October 2006

An undercover TV investigation claims to have infiltrated criminal gangs selling thousands of UK credit card and passport details for as little as £5 each from the country's offshore call centres.

The Channel 4 Dispatches documentary follows a 12-month investigation that resulted in footage of middlemen offering the undercover reporter credit card details of 100,000 customers of UK high-street banks from Indian call centres.

But India IT trade body Nasscom has hit out at Channel 4 after the TV company refused to show the organisation any of the footage before the broadcast on Thursday evening and urged the programme makers to co-operate in rooting out and prosecuting any "corrupt" call centre workers.

Sunil Mehta, VP at Nasscom, told silicon.com: "The whole issue of data security is a global problem. There are bad apples in every industry around the world and these incidents happen in India and the UK. This is not a widespread problem in India. Security measures and practices that Indian companies have are the best in the world."

Mehta said in the case of recent high-profile incidents of Indian call centre security breaches - such as HSBC - the criminals were identified and arrested within three weeks and are now awaiting trial. He also pointed to initiatives such as the national register to vet call centre and IT workers and a regulatory body to improve the level of security in the industry.

Mehta said: "India is doing all it can to stay ahead of this. We need to deal with this."

At the same time, the UK's largest private sector trade union Amicus is calling for a Parliamentary Select Committee inquiry into the security of financial services work being sent overseas to countries such as India.

David Fleming, Amicus national secretary, said the union has "serious concerns" about the security of overseas call centres and claimed a clear business case for offshoring has yet to be made.

He said in a statement: "We need to look at long-term implications for the UK economy. To date there is no evidence to suggest that offshoring benefits customers. But there is evidence that shows the negative effect of offshoring on those who lose their jobs and the existing UK workforces that have to deal with dissatisfied customers."