"The internet is the first opportunity in a long time that provides India a chance to transform the country."

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DQI Bureau
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—Uday Om Pabrai size="2" face="Arial">Vice Chairman and CTO, Prosoft, USA

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With more than 12 years of
experience in the technology industry, Pabrai has been a consultant on network, web,
security and related application technologies. He joined Prosoft in 1998 as Executive VP
and CTO when the company acquired Net Guru Technologies, an internet skills and training
company he founded in 1992. Pabrai spoke to DATAQUEST about internet security threat and
the other issues that India needs to look at. Excerpts:

  •   color="#000080" size="2" face="Arial">How critical is the issue of security in e-commerce
    today?

  • Earlier, a business which
    wished to connect to the internet just needed a web site to establish its presence. Now
    more businesses are trying to leverage on the internet for internal operations and
    communication with partners or suppliers. The traditional solution that companies deploy
    for security, the firewall system, is a good barrier for entry in terms of transactions
    coming from outside, but it doesn’t take into account what is happening inside the
    organization. And 60-80% threats are internal, how do you secure against them!

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    • In what ways do you
      think one can tackle it?

    I think you can’t
    prevent threats unless you are knowledgeable about your environment and the vulnerable
    points. The first step is to go through a thorough risk assessment. There are a lot of
    products that expose your network and systems. A combination of firewall and intrusion
    detection technology allows you to tackle that.

    •  What kind of a
      role is your organization playing in this area? What is e-security all about?

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    I have been working on the
    board of directors of Prosoft since they bought the company that I started. I had built a
    security methodology and now they own the rights to that. At the same time, I am also
    starting my own business ‘ecfirst.com’ and e-security is one of the key services
    that we will be offering.

    What we regard as a
    well-rounded approach to security starts with risk assessment. It analyzes the counter
    measures that are already deployed. The initial discovery phase, which is a two-week
    exercise, brings to the forefront all the vulnerable points and what can be done to
    prevent these threats.

    •  When you compare
      the scenario in India with the US, what are the other problems that you foresee here?

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    If I look at the mass
    consumer, someone who has used the internet, there is a tremendous amount of reservation
    among Indians while buying things using their credit card or giving information over the
    net. When you compare India with the US, this is one of the key differences. So, trust has
    to be built and security needs to be more visible.

    Another thing that I noticed is that
    India’s biggest liability, the population is actually India’s biggest asset.
    Indians are intelligent, knowledgeable individuals and they like to get into new
    businesses. This is something we’ve not been able to exploit and harness. So, in that
    sense, I feel the internet will be a first opportunity in a long time that really provides
    India the chance to transform the country.