By Andy McCue, 29 June 2006 12:40
NEWS
An Indian call centre worker at HSBC's Bangalore offshore operation has been arrested on hacking charges relating to theft of £233,000 from the accounts of some of the bank's UK customers.
The 24-year-old Nadeem Kashmiri was arrested by police on Wednesday after going on the run when the fraud was discovered recently by HSBC.
He is currently being held by Bangalore's cyber crime police and could face up to five years in jail if found guilty of hacking and breach of confidentiality charges.
HSBC was alerted to the fraud by its internal security systems, which discovered that confidential account information of a small number of UK customers had been accessed and leaked by a member of staff at the data processing centre in Bangalore.
Reports in India claim Kashmiri was paid just under £1,000 to leak the confidential account details by a criminal gang in the UK, which used the information to set up money transfers from the victims' accounts.
Martyn Hart, chairman of the UK's National Outsourcing Association, said this kind of data breach can happen anywhere around the world but warned that the relatively low pay of some workers in offshore locations makes them an easier target for criminals.
HSBC has said it will aggressively pursue a conviction and that all affected customers will be fully reimbursed for any losses they have suffered as a result of the breach.
Comments
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1. anonymous
Just another goal for the business profit vs security case.
India needs to get a hold of this problem otherwise we will start to see a mass exit from the market by companies not willing to take the risk of customer or company information falling into the wrong hands.
Other far east countries have learnt that not dealing with this type of problem hard enough, with stiffer penalties, leads to the hole of the countries growth turning to decline.
2. Karen Challinor
£1K in £233K out sounds like a good investment, I can see organised crime taking a fresh interest in india sometime very soon
and it appears the chap will be prosecuted under indian law and not english, but HSBC will reimburse those affected so thats alright then
so what happens next time ?
3. Tapan Sangal
Crime is getting global, criminals are synergizing globally. We need to think, prepare and protect our businesses globally. We just cannot have a myopic approach towards this threat by pointing towards one country. This is our problem, us who are dreaming of one united global economy….
4. anonymous
Having UK customers account details handled by people in another country ANy other country, is asking for trouble. I would argue it is against my humna rights to have my confidential UK bank details touted about in this manner. Bring back ALL banking to the UK where it belongs.