In a bid to prevent data theft and ensure that India remains a secure outsourcing destination, Nasscom has decided to form a Self Regulatory Organisation for adoption and strengthening of best practices in IT and BPO companies.
As a first step toward this, Nasscom appointed former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh as the chairman of the yet-to-be formed SRO.
Ghosh will lead the effort to set up the SRO functionally and structurally, Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said.
The body, to be formed under Trusted Sourcing Initiative of Nasscom, is being set up following allegations in the US and the UK that Indian call center workers were stealing and selling data processed by Indian outsourcing companies.
Last year, a call centre employee was arrested for using credit card details of customers to make on-line purchases.
The SRO will raise the bar in data security and privacy by including best practices currently stipulated by certifications such as the ISO17799 standard for information security of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Geneva, as well as data privacy and data protection laws worldwide.
Being a member of the SRO will in effect be a certification, as member companies will have to follow best practices specified by the SRO. If SRO withdraws the certification then it would be clear to the customers of that IT/BPO/call centre that best security practices are not being followed by that company, Ghosh said.
