Source code stolen from U.S. software company in India](http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/08/05/HNcodestolen_1.html)
Jolly Technologies, a division of U.S. company Jolly Inc., reported Wednesday that an insider stole portions of the source code and confidential design documents relating to one of its key products, at its research and development center in Mumbai, India. The company has as a result halted all development activities at the center.
Re: Watch where u outsource..
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*Originally posted by PakistaniAbroad:
**Jolly **Technologies, a division of U.S. company Jolly Inc.....i]
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U think they'd be too pissed about it? :)
Yeah, watch it. Make sure you stay awy from places like china, San Francisco and other places around the world. There are people with poor ethical standards there. SOme employees might steal....imagine that? Corporate espionage...oh my god.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Matsui: *
Yeah, watch it. Make sure you stay awy from places like china, San Francisco and other places around the world. There are people with poor ethical standards there. SOme employees might steal....imagine that? Corporate espionage...oh my god.
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Tsk, Tsk, cant take it can we? Sore loser.
^ ditto.
here you go nudniks..Security practices are above and beyond ht esihthole tech companies you nerds work for.
Outsourcing: Fortress India?
Call centers and credit-card processors are tightening security to ease U.S. and European fears of identity theft
A line of neatly dressed workers files into the Golden Millennium, a shimmering glass-and-steel building in central Bangalore. One by one, they swipe ID cards through a reader, then empty their pockets and bags and stuff cell phones, PDAs, and even pens and notebooks into lockers as a dour security guard watches. Staffers ending their shifts, meanwhile, are busy shredding notes of conversations with customers. At the reception desk, visitors sign a daunting four-page form promising not to divulge anything they see inside – and even then are only allowed to peer into the workspace through thick windows. Advertisement
A top-secret military contractor? Hardly. This is one of four call centers run by ICICI OneSource, which employs 4,000 young Indians to process credit-card bills and make telemarketing calls for big U.S. and European banks, insurers, and retailers. And ICICI isn’t the only outsourcing company worried about security. Call center operators such as Mphasis BFL, Wipro Spectramind, and 24/7 Customer, as well as back-office subsidiaries of companies such as General Electric, are quickly adding state-of-the-art systems to monitor phone conversations, guard data, and watch workers’ every move.
Why the extreme caution? After rushing to shift telemarketing and back-office work to India in recent years to tap low wages, U.S. and European companies are under growing pressure from regulators and legislators to guarantee the privacy of their customers’ financial and health-care data. India’s $3.6 billion business-process services industry is eager to defuse the issue. When the backlash against offshore outsourcing erupted last year, opponents first focused on curbing government contracts and temporary U.S. work visas for foreign tech workers. Now security and privacy fears have become the hot excuses “for new barriers to trade in services and information technology,” says Jerry Rao, chairman of the National Association of Service & Software Cos. (Nasscom), India’s IT trade group.
PENDING LEGISLATION
Today 186 bills that aim to limit offshore outsourcing are pending in the U.S. Congress and 40 state legislatures. Dozens of those involve restrictions on transmission of data. For example, the SAFE ID Act, sponsored by Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), and a similar House bill by Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), would require businesses to notify U.S. consumers before sending personal information overseas – and would bar companies from denying service or charging a higher price if customers balk. Although no such bills have been enacted so far, “next year I think all of this legislation will be back and spike up again as a huge issue,” especially if the U.S. recovery stalls, says R. Bruce Josten, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce executive vice-president who helped industry fight the legislation.
Identity theft and credit-card fraud are huge problems globally. There’s little evidence, though, to suggest consumer data are at any greater risk in India than in the U.S. Sure, India’s privacy laws aren’t as stringent as in the West. But most highly sensitive data belonging to U.S. or European companies are stored on their own servers at home, with access from India tightly controlled. If an American is defrauded, the U.S. company that farmed out the work is legally responsible. Indian call centers, meanwhile, sign their contracts in the U.S. and can thus be sued there by their corporate customers. What’s more, there is only one known case of fraud. Last year a programmer for India’s Geometric Software Solutions Co. tried to sell a U.S. client’s intellectual property. He was arrested and is awaiting trial in India.
Still, given the charged emotions over outsourcing, India’s IT industry knows even a few incidents will generate devastating publicity. So call centers like Mphasis BFL Ltd., which employs 6,000 workers performing sensitive tasks such as processing personal tax returns and credit-card statements for U.S. clients, are leaving little to chance. If the U.S. company prefers, consumers’ names, Social Security numbers, and credit-card numbers can be masked. Computer terminals at Mphasis lack hard drives, e-mail, CD-ROM drives, or other ways to store, copy, or forward data. Indian accountants only view data from U.S. servers for specific tasks. Video cameras watch over the sea of cubicles. Every phone conversation is recorded and can be monitored on a system installed by Melville (N.Y.)-based Verint Systems Inc. And since data theft is often committed by disgruntled former employees, Mphasis can lock a staffer out and cut access to PCs and phones three minutes after a resignation. A year ago that process took three days. “Fears about identity theft can be aggravated when people learn their data are in a foreign country,” says Mphasis Vice-Chairman Jeroen Tas. “So we feel it is better to address these concerns up front.”
Such precautions don’t come cheap. It costs about $1,000 per worker to install the Verint system that records, stores, and analyzes voice conversations. Yet Verint has signed up 100 local and multinational centers in India. “There has been a big push in the past year or so as the competition focuses more on quality,” says Mariann McDonagh, Verint’s vice-president for global marketing. Indian centers also pay up to $300 per worker for background checks, a big expense given their explosive growth and high attrition rates. It’s also cumbersome: Due to India’s lack of online databases, verifying education and work experience can take weeks.
But while security practices in India now match or surpass those at most U.S. call centers, the legal system still needs work. Indian law on computer hacking inside companies is fuzzy, and privacy enforcement is weak. India’s IT industry is addressing those vulnerabilities. Nasscom is working with the government to bring India’s data-privacy laws more in line with the U.S. And it intends to have the security practices of all its 860 members audited by international accounting firms. Nasscom has helped Bombay’s police department set up a cybercrime unit, training officers to investigate data theft. Similar units are planned in nine other cities. India’s goal, says Nasscom Vice-President Sunil Mehta, is “to have the best data-security provisions and be a trusted sourcing destination.”
Given the ingenuity of today’s cyberscammers, some embarrassing incident seems inevitable. But India’s IT-services industry is determined to show that the world’s financial and health secrets are as safe in Bangalore as they are anywhere.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_33/b3896073.htm
It is very sad to hear about the brutal security measures. Are they making sure to reset the brain of those employees who have photographic memory before they leave for the day?
I bet the guy who stole that code was named Abdul Qadir Khan and the sob might have sold it to North Korea.
Man the service is coming under fire in britain’s best read dailies now:
By ADELE WATERS
PATIENTS’ lives are put at risk because letters from hospital doctors are sent to India to be typed, it was claimed yesterday.
Eight NHS hospitals are using the services of private company Omnimedical to make up for secretary shortages.
They have followed the lead of call centres and other large businesses in switching to overseas workers recently.
But Michael Fiennes, of the Association of Medical Secretaries, has warned that the move will lead to more errors.
He told The Sun he had many examples of mistakes in transcribing from voice recordings that could have had serious consequences.
Typist’s error … letter should have
read ‘below-knee amputation’
[thumb=H]letter1131_6458434.JPG[/thumb]
:hehe:
Among the silliest are:
A below-knee amputation typed by a secretary in India as a “baloney amputation”.
A patient recommended a dose of “Lanzarote” instead of the stomach ulcer drug Lansoprazole.
A man’s phlebitis (inflammation of the vein) in his left leg became “flea bite his left leg”.
The ear problem eustachian tube malfunction described as “Euston Station tube malfunction”.
One note referred to a “cute angina” instead of the heart condition acute angina.
A recommendation for the sex drug Viagra was typed up as “Niagra”.
Another note referred to a woman’s pelvic examination being “done on the floor” instead of the pelvic floor.
Taking over … workers in Bangalore
[thumb=H]tel1131_6540609.JPG[/thumb]
And a letter about a worried mum-to-be said: “A doctor may require a secretary to hold down a hysterical patient who has to have an injection and a baby.”
Mr Fiennes said while some errors might seem amusing, mistakes could also occur by changing the dosage of a drug given, for example from 5mg to 50mg.
Going abroad also saves money.
Indian typists are paid about a third of the £14,000-a-year British Medical Secretaries earn.
The service is used by St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South West London, and seven others in the capital to type around 7,000 letters a month.
St George’s switched to India two months ago, claiming they get typing done faster.
Letters that took a month to get out are now done in 48 hours.
A spokesman said: “The transcription service is secure and confidential, and there are rigorous safeguards to ensure accuracy.”
outsourcing continues to grow
Financial Firms Hasten Their Move to Outsourcing
Since then, 87 percent of E-Loan’s customers have chosen to have their loans financed two days faster by having their applications processed in India
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/18/business/worldbusiness/18india.html
I have some knowledge of this 'medical transcription'. Yes, errors do happen, but the quality levels in most of the major players in India are no way lower than what you could obtain in the US or UK. There are multiple levels of quality checks, including at the highest levels by qualified doctors.
No offence meant, but a typist is a typist is a typist irrepsective of where they are.
(For some newbie doctors, the pay at such medical transcription companies could be three to four times what they could hope to earn as a rookie doctor in a hospital. Many use this route to fund their post-grad courses)