[IP] Bruce Schneier on Indian call center leaking credit card data [priv]

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Date: June 27, 2005 9:15:12 AM EDT
To: politech@politechbot.com
Subject: [Politech] Bruce Schneier on Indian call center leaking  
credit card data [priv]



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Bruce Schneier on indian call center leaking credit card data
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 01:20:34 +0530
From: suresh@hserus.net (Suresh Ramasubramanian)
To: declan@well.com
CC: dave@farber.net

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/23/indian_call_centre_fraud_probe/

The Sun organized a sting where they caught a call center employee  
selling
credit cards. This is hitting the headlines with the usual stories  
about the
dangers of outsourcing. Bruce has a refreshingly different, and  
accurate,
viewpoint, as always -

    srs

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/06/indian_call_cen.html

June 24, 2005
Indian Call Center Sells Personal Information

There was yet another incident where call center staffer was selling  
personal
data. The data consisted of banking details of British customers, and  
was sold
by people at an outsourced call center in India.

I predict a spate of essays warning us of the security risks of offshore
outsourcing. That's stupid; this has almost nothing to do with  
offshoring. It's
no different than the Lembo case, and that happened in the safe and  
secure
United States.

There are security risks to outsourcing, and there are security risks to
offshore outsourcing. But the risk illustrated in this story is the  
risk of
malicious insiders, and that is mostly independent of outsourcing.  
Lousy wages,
lack of ownership, a poor work environment, and so on can all  
increase the risk
of malicious insiders, but that's true regardless of who owns the  
call center
or in what currency the salary is paid in. Yes, it's harder to  
prosecute across
national boundaries, but the deterrence here is more contractual than  
criminal.

The problem here is people, not corporate or national boundaries.

Posted on June 24, 2005 at 09:35 AM

_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)


-------------------------------------
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/