India Call Centre Staff Bribed

Evening Standard ^ | 2/10/04 | Pete Warren

[Samizdat]

'India call centre staff bribed' Pete Warren, Evening Standard 10 February 2004

STAFF at call centres in India are being bribed by organised crime and industrial spies to them help hack into the computer systems of British firms.

In at least two recent cases, local IT staff working on the sub-continent for UK institutions were involved in what industry sources say were 'security issues' in what is described as the tiniest fraction of a far larger problem.

In one case, sensitive financial information and credit card details were apparently illegally taken from a leading British financial institution.

A spokesman for the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) in Britain said: 'This shows that there are some things that you really should not send overseas. For organised criminals, this is a godsend.

'If you are using people in a low wage area, organised crime can afford to pay a lifetime's wages for data.'

Richard Hollis, managing director of Orthus, an information security solutions company in London, claims the problem is growing because Indian staff have access to increasingly sensitive customer information.

He said: 'We're seeing a significant increase in security problems associated with this type of outsourcing. Given that the majority of hacking originates from within organisations, outsourcing administrative responsibilities to an engineer making around £4,000 annually is asking for problems.

'The engineers employed by these firms are extremely skilled technicians and since they already possess the passwords and unrestricted access to the networks they service, they have quickly become targets for organised crime and private investigative firms looking to buy their way into a network.'

The revelations came after Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt chaired a meeting last Monday to discuss the growing trend for call centres and other outsourced tasks to be switched from Britain to India.

Several British firms including Aviva, BT, ebookers, HSBC and Tesco have unveiled plans to relocate, or already created call centres in India.

Academics and industry experts believe this exodus could represent just the tip of the iceberg as other service industries look set to follow.

Manchester Business School's Professor Peter Barrah, author of the International Handbook on Outsourcing, said: 'It's a trend that is limited only by your imagination. There are some services that have to be delivered here and now; for anything that is produced with, or uses, a computer there is the potential for offshore outsourcing.

'There are companies that have now outsourced their strategy, the development of their marketing campaigns and their new product development.'

The DTI is currently commissioning research that it hopes will give a clearer picture of the true trend of job migration.

In the UK, there are about 400,000 people involved in the call-centre industry in about 5,500 call centres.

[Samizdat]

See?

[FormerACLUmember]

My 90 year old disabled Army Officer dad (2 purple hearts and a bronze star) had $33,000 wired out of his bank account to India.

The India outsourcing will ultimately make the Nigerian scams look like child's play.

[TSgt]

Take that you genius executives who are sending your IT jobs overseas.

[ECM]

Wow, this is a big surprise...
/sarcasm

[Dialup Llama]

What was the result of this? Did the bank give him his money back?

[Dialup Llama]

Was it a wire or an ACH transfer? Do you know how this guy got your dad's account info?

[Bikers4Bush]

Aaaaaah, the benefits of sending jobs overseas. How nice.

[independentmind]

STAFF at call centres in India are being bribed by organised crime and industrial spies to them help hack into the computer systems of British firms.

Surprise, surprise. One thing that outsourcing does not encourage is employee loyalty.

[octobersky]

OMG! How awful. I wonder if the FDIC reimburses victims in cases like this.

[Southack]

"Richard Hollis, managing director of Orthus, an information security solutions company in London, claims the problem is growing because Indian staff have access to increasingly sensitive customer information."

No, that's only the half of it. The problem is *growing* because of India's annual 60+% turnover problem in their staff. When you are replacing staff at that rate, your firm can *only* have a temporary employee mentality rather than a long-term "part of us" viewpoint.

10 Points to whomever correctly identifies which group, temps or happy long-termers, is *more* easily bribed.

[CJ Wolf]

Hmm, I wonder how much to wipe clean and propup my credit scores?

[Bikers4Bush]

oooh oooh oooh I know! Temps!

[kitkat]

BUMP to find my place and the reply from FormerACLUmember

[international american]

They will steal our technology next.

[Southack]

Give that man a cupie doll, he is correct!

[Bikers4Bush]

They already are stealing it.

If Microsquash and the RIAA think bootlegs are a problem now just wait.

[FormerACLUmember]

The bank in question uses Indian out sourcing. My dad's account was looted with wire transfers of $200- $2000 using inside information and falsified documents to India, totalling $33,000 before my 90 year old pop got wind of this.

He will get all the money back (allegedly).

The bank is "re-evaluating" its use of Indian ousourcing.

[Mamzelle]

re: My 90 year old disabled Army Officer dad (2 purple hearts and a bronze star) had $33,000 wired out of his bank account to India.)))

Really!!?

What was the outcome?

[Lael]

My 90 year old disabled Army Officer dad (2 purple hearts and a bronze star) had $33,000 wired out of his bank account to India.

The India outsourcing will ultimately make the Nigerian scams look like child's play.

You got that right...but DON'T wait for the American Press to report it!!

[FormerACLUmember]

ousourcing = outsourcing.