Catch-22 situation in Information Technology
In an age of IT, you lose if you do not get onto the IT bandwagon. But you also lose as IT is vulnerable to online cyber frauds. Cyber-Spaced out I Most Interactive Museum
Information Technology is a productive combination of computers and communication. We live in an age of information technology (IT) where practically every aspect of our economic life is pervaded by it. But technology is not an unmissed blessing.
There is always a downside for every upside. With the information technology operating at the speed of light and the internet connecting the whole world, it is now possible to commit crimes across borders. Especially when it comes to financial crimes in banks, the risk of fraud is much more.
The Indian banking system has been accustomed to a conservative paper-based culture for a long time. Only in recent times have banks shifted to the use of IT. This has become a condition for the survival of banks, thanks to the Indian economy increasingly being linked with the global economy after liberalisation.
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Competition has become intense since customers need to be provided with the best possible services. While IT provides the best opportunity to satisfy customers and handle huge amounts of data, it is also vulnerable to cyber crimes. You lose if you do not get onto the IT bandwagon and computerise. You also lose because IT is vulnerable to a whole range of online cyber frauds, apart from off-line frauds.
Once IT is the universally adopted technology of operations, you get the benefit of collective efforts to check new cyber frauds. Developing a new breed of specialists to audit the IT system itself is a source of additional insurance and security.
Indian banks are supervised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has been issuing guidelines about the regular audit of these banks. Increasing use of IT and banks going online has introduced a totally new dimension as far as audits are concerned.
In addition to the normal audit, there is a need for a systems audit about the IT used. A new type of auditors, who are certified information system auditors, are required to meet this requirement of auditing not only the purely financial aspects of the bank operations, but also the information systems.
The need to train people in this new discipline and recognise this new profession is very urgent. Hopefully, the RBI and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India must be taking action.
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But with the increasing threat of risk to the banking system, especially due to the vulnerability of IT systems for crimes, there is a need to systematically and quickly develop a whole cadre of information security systems auditors. There should be a sufficient number of such specialists to meet the growing demands of the financial sector of the country. Security problems in IT are the big blue elephant in the room, which no one notices or wants to talk about. This is because talking too much about security may prove to be counterproductive and introduce a lot of anxiety and delay in our country adopting IT fully and wholeheartedly.
At the same time there is the inconvenient fact that a majority of cyber crimes are committed by insiders and according to estimates, nearly 80 per cent of such cases are not reported. It is one more example of the Catch-22 situation in Information Technology.
Courtesy: Mumbai Mirror
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