BPOs, IT firms step up security measures

Wednesday, December 03, 2008 10:09 AM (Mumbai)
As terror strikes take on new and frightening dimensions, there are fears that Indian outsourcing companies, the backbone for global MNCs, could become soft targets for terrorists.The BPO industry alone employs seven lakh employees, who all can potentially access sensitive data and they are now under scrutiny.Every IT and BPO company is now stepping up background checks on its employees to avoid terrorist attacks. After all almost 70 per cent of the outsourced work from the US and Europe come to these back offices in India. Crucial data and operations reside here and employees have access to it all, which if under attack, can hamper their businesses substantially.Corporates like Infosys are also beefing up internal security but they want the government to do much more."We need to have something like citizen identity card, which can establish uniform identity. Database will help intercept in critical times," said Mohandas Pai, director, HR, Infosys."Earlier we used to do background checks after we had committed appointment letters. Now we have gone a step ahead and doing this before handing out the letters," said Pradeep Bahirwani, VP, Talent Acquisition.