Outsourcing brings threat right in

Police advise IT firms to check antecedents of service personnel

Outsourcing brought in convenience and flexibility for the IT industry. But now, it could open doors for terrorists to carry out their diabolical designs.

The Andhra Pradesh police see outsourcing of various services such as catering, transportation and housekeeping by the IT companies as the most vulnerable point in their security system.

The police have become more vigilant after the Bangalore Indian Institute of Science incident in which a Delhi professor was gunned down recently.

While tightening the security in and around the Hitec City, the hub of IT operations in the state capital in the aftermath of the Bangalore incident, the police are now advising the representatives of IT companies on the steps they need to take from inside to avert any possible threat in view of outsourcing of non-core and peripheral requirements of day-to-day nature.

According to a senior police official, the outsourcing model adopted by these companies has become worrisome as they could provide easy access to miscreants to their offices and campuses through catering, housekeeping, transportation services, etc. T

The police are urging the companies to verify the antecedents of the companies providing support services and also of the personnel deputed for doing different work, including those of drivers of taxicabs before engaging them.

"They simply go by the ISO certification of a transport firm and engage it for daily transportation of their employees. They are not bothered about the background of the operator or the driver engaged by the firm. This exposes them to a great risk," the police officer contended.

Without the internal safeguards, the outside security cover provided by the police may prove ineffective due to the sheer size of employees working in several IT firms and odd working hours, the police feel.

At present, the police have set up checkposts on all the access roads to the Hitec City, which houses who's who of the global IT companies including Microsoft, Infosys, Wipro and TCS.

However, companies, which have offices in other places in the city, may not get the same level of security cover as the Hitec City.