Confidential data of US firm stolen; Thane BPO files complaint

In a case of suspected corporate espionage, a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firm has approached police claiming that confidential data of its US- based client was illegally accessed.

Bhaynder police in Maharashtra's Thane district have registered a case after Epicentre Technology, a BPO, filed a complaint, a police official said Tuesday.

A New York-based debt-recovery company, which signed an agreement with Epicentre Technology in 2018, had entrusted to it confidential data including email IDs and passwords, said Atul Kulkarni, Sub-Divisional Police Officer.

Some employees of the BPO who had access to this data left recently and one of them did not return his company- issued laptop, Epicentre Technology said in the complaint.

"Two months ago, officials of the BPO found that four email addresses were accessed from outside and some passwords had been changed," the officer said.

One of the email IDs was being accessed by another Thane-based rival BPO, the company alleged.

A case was registered against unidentified persons under sections 43A (failure to protect data), 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) and 72A (disclosure of information in breach of lawful contract) of the Information Technology Act, the police officer said.

"Probe is on. Apparently there has been a data breach and it may be a case of corporate espionage," he said.

Some former employees of the BPO were under the scanner but no arrest has been made yet, he added.