'Info security key concern of IT companies'

With the IT environment increasingly becoming vulnerable to security attacks, disparate technologies and proliferation of access, devices and parts, information security has become a key concern for the Indian IT companies, according to Hari Chereddi, senior manager, Polaris Software Lab Limited.

"Though 95 per cent of these threats are averted with proper policies and systems configuration, other information risks such as identity theft, privacy and confidentiality are still posing challenges to IT companies with regard to information security, mainly due to outsourcing. With outsourcing, boundaries have expanded, and with it threat," he said.

Chereddi was addressing a session on 'Securing the IT ecosystem to unleash India's potential' at CII's India Information Security Summit 2006 on 'Securing the connected world' in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Customer's trust and privacy, besides the company's reputation would be at stake with the disclosure of sensitive data, service interruption and loss of business critical data, he said, adding that IT organisations need to care about increasing their focus on security.

Stating that increased focus on security, C-level visibility, top business priority and growing investments are key drivers of IT security, he said, "Customer's trust is an essential element of any industry and so is business critical data. To retain customers and regain control over fragmented infrastructure, companies need to eliminate overhead and cost of manual audits and make multiple investments in consistent protection practices."