The Hindu Business Line : Banks to beef up data security measures

Mumbai, Feb. 5 In order to ring-fence their services from serious disruptions arising out of possible terrorist attacks, floods, earthquakes, strikes, et al, banks are gearing up their IT infrastructure by introducing an intermediate layer of data security called ‘near-site’. This site will function synchronously with the primary data centre, capturing, on a real-time basis, all customer transactions at branches and ATMs.

Among others, Corporation Bank and IDBI Bank are planning to set up ‘near-sites’ about 25-30 km away from their primary data centres. This move comes in the wake of the RBI asking banks to ensure enhanced data security.

Unlike the primary data centre, the disaster recovery site, which is typically situated in a different geographical location, captures transaction data with a small time lag. In case a data centre blows out, though the disaster recovery site takes over its functioning during the emergency, precious transaction data could be lost in the interregnum.

It is to avoid such an exigency that banks are setting up ‘near-sites.’

Though the cost of establishing a near-site could be as much as that for setting up the primary data centre, bankers are confident that it would be money well spent as it would go a long way in securing data and ensuring business continuity. About three years ago, a public sector bank had incurred a capital expenditure of around Rs 50 crore for setting up its primary data centre.

“As the disaster recovery site is far removed from the primary disaster centre, with a distance of a few thousand km separating them, transfer of transaction data takes place in an asynchronous mode. So, there is a time lag in the data transfer process. Hence, as a measure of abundant precaution, we are planning to set up near-site to prevent loss of transaction data,” said Mr Sanjay Sharma, Adviser-IT, IDBI Bank.

Like the primary data centre, the near-site will capture all transactions on a real-time basis.

“Terrorist attacks and natural calamities can have deleterious impact on the functioning of banks. Protection of data pertaining to customer transactions is of utmost importance. In order to achieve this, our near-site, which we will be setting up, will complement the functioning of the primary data centre,” said Mr B.R. Bhat, General Manager, Corporation Bank.

Bank of India, according to its General Manager (IT), Mr P.A. Kalayanasundar, had started work on its near-site much before the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai.

“Many banks are in the process of establishing their near-site data centre because it can ensure that there is no data loss. It will mirror the functioning of the primary data centre,” he said.

BoI’s primary data centre and near-site are in Mumbai and the disaster recovery site is in Bangalore.

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