Data outsourced from BPOs

An employee of a Business Process Outsourcing company selling data to its rival is not a new thing for the city's BPOs. In fact, data theft from leading BPOs has become quite the norm in the city.

Those associated with the industry say that the sort of data illegally sold by employees of a BPO to its rivals may cost 10 times more, if the rival company tried to purchase it legally. According to Utkarsh Brahmbhatt, owner of a BPO I-factor Informatic Center, such trend is a result of inexperienced youth setting up their own venture without calculating the risks involved.

"Such ventures soon fail and when they run out of money the youth look at illegal ways to quickly make the moolah," said Brahmbhatt.

"Those who get the data through illegal means get it cheaply and thus save expenses and add to their profit. But this is just one of the benefits of procuring data illegally," said Brahmbhatt.

For instance, a BPO named X is doing a mortgage project for a US-based client.
Now the US-based client will charge the company X Rs50 per data. Now, if the same data is stolen and given to company Y for Rs5 per data, the latter is likely to generate the same business as company X but at low expenses.

Thus company Y saves Rs45 by way of expenses, while generating the same profit as company X. Sources in the industry say that data can be stolen through e-mail, pen-drive and through cell phones (smses and calls) among others. 

"But those who have technical knowledge and know the functioning of the system often steal the data directly from the BPO's server by copying the data to the their personal account," said Brahmbhatt.

Industry experts say often people who have better hardware and networking knowledge and those who are at the managerial level are more likely to steal and sell data.

"The leads (data) are of different kind and can cost anywhere between Rs2 to Rs2,000. The cost depends on the kind of project and sensitivity of the information," said CEO of Hi-Tech Outsourcing Services Pranit Banthia

Banthia who is into selling of leads (data) to firms across India and the world said that those who get data illegally get it cheap. But he warns that such incidents can have a harmful impact on the BPO industry in the long run.