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The Pune BPO Citibank / Mphasis Fraud – 4/?

P. Venkat — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 06:29:00 +0000

Yesterday’s ( Sunday ) Times of India carried a full page graphic recount of the events that occurred in the Fraud. It was very interesting reading.

The story has all the elements that make it newsworthy. BPO, Young girls, International crime, Ill gotten wealth…and oh yes…trips of Bangkok

There are two ways to look at this coverage. One is that this kind of negative publicity would result in increased outsourcing backlash. Data is not safe in Third World countries kind of thing.

The other is that it would serve as a warning to every latent criminals heart, that should he attempt to do anything like this, retribution can be swift. In this case it came in just about 2 to3 months.

Hopefully companies handling such sensitive data will be more careful and put in place processes and procedures that will effectively stop such events from occurring in the future.

Venkat

The Pune BPO Citibank / Mphasis Fraud – 3/?

P Venkat — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 12:00:00 +0000

The post fraud scenario is rolling out as expected.

BS 7799 auditors and certifying agencies are making hay while the April tropical sun shines down in Pune and other cities of India.

Even small names are quoting fees higher than what the Big 5 used to quote for the same services some time back.

“Concerns about data to third world countries” articles have appeared in most publications in the western world. As if fraudsters do not work in the developed world.

The Police in Pune must be complimented for really taking strong action…which is as it should be.

Venkat

The Pune BPO Citibank / Mphasis Fraud – 2/?

P Venkat — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 20:40:00 +0000

The fraud is playing out as it should. Today’s Times of India has a front page article which is a plug by a security consultant who sells hardware security solutions. So far the anti-outsourcing lobby has not jumped into the fray. But that sure will. How about Congressmen…they seem to have not heard about it.

Meanwhile there have two more arrests. Mphasis has done what it should. As any employer they have called in the police.

The question really is what can stop identity thefts. We all have ourselves received numerous emails purportedly from ‘Banks’ we do not have accounts with asking us to submit passwords on their ‘clone’ site. Pshing as it is called. What is the percentage of such crimes in the US? Is data unsafe only when it comes to India?

Venkat

The Pune BPO Citibank / Mphasis Fraud – 1/?

P Venkat — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 07:26:00 +0000

The fraud that occured is of course quite dramatic and should not happen at all. But the fraud will of course solicit the usual press.

One range of articles will be about how it can be dangerous for data to leave the country and go to a Third World country where laws are lax or nonexistent etc.

Another range will be by the consultants ( and Forrester has already jumped in ) saying that it will undermine the credibility and harm the nascent industry etc.

We will then see the data security consultants coming right in and selling the concept of data security certification, the hardware guys telling us how data could be secured in so many ways etc etc.

And are we not forgetting the flurry of seminars that will follow some time later?

Whether the original perpetrators made money or not the ambulance chasers definitely will.

Venkat