How to tackle the problem of security breaches in call centers

Outsourcing is the mantra of the day. Today, many large MNCs, all across the globe, outsource activities like customer relationship management activities to cheap labor countries where English speaking skills are not a problem. A major concern in such outsourcing is the security in customer’s sensitive data.
It has been estimated by a research that the average cost of security breach is $6.4million in 2009 and this cost is spiraling up, growing as fast as 90% sometimes, YoY. Security breaches incur costs from the following heads:

• Customer Notification and Follow-Up
• Cost of Lost Customers
• Legal Costs
• Customer Restitution
• Damage to Brand and Company Image
• Regulatory Fines and Penalties
• Increased Security and Audit Requirements
• Employee Downtime

Call centers have to keep audio calls transcribed for meeting legal requirements as well as for training purposes. In such a scenario, the cost of a breach becomes very high. Privacy protection for voice recordings is a technology to detect and mask private information from the audio recordings of the conversations. It has been applied to in telephonic conversations between agents and customers in CRM centers. In such settings, the system picks up calls from the recording system and masks out sensitive data such as credit card details, social security details and other sensitive information before storing the recordings. It is customizable to other settings easily where different types of data needs to be masked out. This technology can be extremely useful comply with various security legislation and compliance standards applicable to voice recordings. Fewcompanies actually are not meet the masking requirements and so go for multilayered 128 bit encryption of transcribed call data.

Today, multiple companies provide such security solutions. Few such companies are IBM, Envision, NICE, Protegrity and Vontu Solutions. These solutions either  mask sensitive data before storing transcribed call recordings or provide multi-layered security through encryption  or both.

How was data security in the banking industry implemented

Data security is a major concern in the banking industry where over the years technology has been used to implement various standards to facilitate the implementation of security in the various transactions and internal processes in the industry. Post 1996, banks started implementing data security in transactions using EDI or Electronic data Interchange standards. Financial EDI standards were developed to cater to the requirements of financial institutions like banks.

Problems inherent in using the traditional paper check as payment which affect the payee include the regular occurrence of lost and mutilated checks, delayed mail delivery resulting in late payments, limited remittance information on check stubs, intensive labor required for receipting and depositing checks, keying payments to accounts receivable systems, and the potential for fraudulent check cashing. Problems affecting the financial institutions include the high cost of producing and distributing paper checks due to labor, material and equipment costs. Surprisingly these shortcomings were accepted for many years even after few electronic payment alternatives existed.
By improving accuracy and speed of accounting operations, financial electronic data interchange (EDI) can enhance a healthcare organization’s cash flow. Banks play a key role in implementing EDI for accounts receivable. Financial electronic data interchange (EDI) is poised to make significant advances in banking accounting operations. EDI offers significant improvements in speed and accuracy. Using EDI, transactions that originally requires hours, even days, can be processed instantly. In addition, EDI’s potential error rate is under 2 percent, compared to the previous accepted error rate of 12 percent in the financial industry. EDI also offers the potential for increased payment speed, reduced risk of data loss, and simplified reports that combine customer addenda and billing information. EDI even can be used to verify customers’ insurance eligibility.
Today electronic payments have now taken off and banks are gearing up to meet increasing corporate and government demands by implementing EDI technology.