[Kictanet] Deploying Fibre Optic Cable in Kenya and East Africa, What are the Challenges.

[bitange at jambo.co.ke]

Dear All,

Below please find some of the problems India is experiencing with their
call centers.  I think we need to sereously start putting in place some of
the measures they have taken.

Regards

Ndemo.


Indian call centre security breaches exposed
Offshore industry hits back at undercover TV sting

By Andy McCue

Published: Thursday 05 October 2006

An undercover TV investigation claims to have infiltrated criminal gangs
selling thousands of UK credit card and passport details for as little as
£5 each from the country's offshore call centres.

The Channel 4 Dispatches documentary follows a 12-month investigation that
resulted in footage of middlemen offering the undercover reporter credit
card details of 100,000 customers of UK high-street banks from Indian call
centres.

But India IT trade body Nasscom has hit out at Channel 4 after the TV
company refused to show the organisation any of the footage before the
broadcast on Thursday evening and urged the programme makers to co-operate
in rooting out and prosecuting any "corrupt" call centre workers.

Sunil Mehta, VP at Nasscom, told silicon.com: "The whole issue of data
security is a global problem. There are bad apples in every industry
around the world and these incidents happen in India and the UK. This is
not a widespread problem in India. Security measures and practices that
Indian companies have are the best in the world."

Mehta said in the case of recent high-profile incidents of Indian call
centre security breaches - such as HSBC - the criminals were identified
and arrested within three weeks and are now awaiting trial. He also
pointed to initiatives such as the national register to vet call centre
and IT workers and a regulatory body to improve the level of security in
the industry.

Mehta said: "India is doing all it can to stay ahead of this. We need to
deal with this."

At the same time, the UK's largest private sector trade union Amicus is
calling for a Parliamentary Select Committee inquiry into the security of
financial services work being sent overseas to countries such as India.

David Fleming, Amicus national secretary, said the union has "serious
concerns" about the security of overseas call centres and claimed a clear
business case for offshoring has yet to be made.

He said in a statement: "We need to look at long-term implications for the
UK economy. To date there is no evidence to suggest that offshoring
benefits customers. But there is evidence that shows the negative effect
of offshoring on those who lose their jobs and the existing UK workforces
that have to deal with dissatisfied customers."