The Hindu Business Line : HSBC data theft accused nabbed in Bangalore

The Bangalore Cyber Crime Police on Tuesday arrested Mr Nadeem Kashmiri in a case of data theft and misuse of confidential information to transfer money illegally from customer accounts at HSBC's captive unit, HSBC Electronic Data Processing India Pvt Ltd (HDPI), in Bangalore recently.

The total loss is estimated at £2,33,000 (Rs 1.75 crore).

HDPI, in a complaint to the Cyber Police, had charged its employee, Mr Kashmiri, with accessing personal, security and debit card information of some of its UK customers and passing them on to co-fraudsters for conducting fraudulent transactions through ATM and telephone banking services at his behest.

The case was registered under Sections 66 and 72 of the I-T Act read with 408, 468 and 420 of the IPC.

The fraud was noticed when 20-odd customers complained to the bank that monies from their account were transferred without their knowledge between March and May this year.

An internal investigation by the bank revealed that Mr Kashmiri was the main culprit. HDPI has suspended Mr Kashmiri, who is said to have joined the company by giving false records and misrepresentation.

HSBC has close to 3,000 employees in Bangalore.

Commenting on the development, Nasscom said: "We believe that any case of theft or a breach of a customer's confidentiality must be treated extremely seriously."

Nasscom will work with legal authorities in the UK and India to ensure that those responsible for any criminal breaches are promptly prosecuted and face the maximum penalty.

Nasscom and its members are strong upholders of data privacy and have been continuously strengthening both the legal and enforcement framework for data protection, the apex industry body said.

Indian IT companies undertaking work for UK companies already comply with all the requirements of the Data Protection Act, as well as other security and confidentiality safeguards.

But the industry is determined to raise standards even further, Nasscom said.

The HSBC incident is not the first of its kind.

Last year, five employees of MsourcE, the BPO outfit of Mphasis in Pune, were arrested for cheating four New York-based Citibank account holders, causing them losses to the extent of $425,000.

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