By Andy McCue, 27 June 2006 17:40
NEWS
A security breach at HSBC's offshore data processing unit in Bangalore has led to £233,000 being stolen from the accounts of a small number of UK customers.
A 24-year-old worker at the HSBC operation has been suspended after being accused of accessing confidential account information and passing it on to criminal associates in the UK.
Fears of the security of offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) operations will be heightened by reports in India claiming the HSBC employee also used false records to obtain the job at the bank.
The HSBC worker was caught when the fraud was detected by the bank's security systems.
A spokesman for HSBC told silicon.com: "Our internal security team discovered one of HSBC's staff in Bangalore caused customer data to be leaked leading to a small number of accounts from the UK being compromised."
He declined to comment any further on the details of the breach but said all affected customers - reported to be around 20 in number - have been contacted and will be fully reimbursed for any losses.
The HSBC spokesman added: "We are taking data protection seriously. These systems are sophisticated and in place to help track these things down."
Sunil Mehta, VP of India's IT industry body Nasscom, insisted such security breaches are not unique to offshore operations and can happen in any country.
He said: "India, with its strong legal system and its independent judiciary, is a country that takes this responsibility extremely seriously. Nasscom will work with the legal authorities in the UK and India to ensure that those responsible for any criminal breaches are promptly prosecuted and face the maximum penalty."
Just last month Nasscom created a new regulatory body to help improve data security among India's offshore IT services and BPO companies.
Comments
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1. Mark Kobayashi-Hillary
This is another blow for the reputation of India as a safe destination for personal data, but it is worth putting the fraud in context. This week an employee of the Royal Bank of Scotland was jailed for 10 years in the UK for his part in a £21m fraud. There will be dishonest people within organisations in all nations, India has taken some very tough measures to try preventing this type of fraud in future within the BPO context and it could be argued that they are more stringent in who they now hire (in the UK the kind of probing into your personal and work history that is normal in India when seeking a job would probably not be tolerated...)
2. anonymous
Hi , My Question is this,How many times was H.S.B.C.'s Security systems breached before we outsourced to places such as India?We seem to trivialise an amount of money such as £24000+ that has been "Stolen" from every day bank accounts.Will this person who has stolen this money with the thought that he/she has passed the security secrets on to the criminal fraternity be severely punished under India law or British law?