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India's biggest mobile phone firm earns certification to ISO/IEC 27001
06 Mar 2009
Topics: Information security, ISO/IEC 27001, India
India's largest mobile phone firm, Bharti Airtel, has been awarded certification to ISO/IEC 27001 Information security mangagement by BSI in India. Certification covers 300 locations spread over the entire country.
For Bharti Airtel, information is critical. Certification to ISO/IEC 27001 helps manage and protect valuable information assets, defining requirements for an Information Security Management System (ISMS), to help ensure adequate and proportionate security controls are in place.
ISO/IEC 27001 can be invaluable for organizations managing information on behalf of others: it can be used to assure customers that their information is being protected.
Bharti Airtel has almost 2,500 computer servers handling around 2,500 terabytes of data. This certification will help the company become India's most trusted brand by 2010.
"As we expand beyond traditional voice-based services to areas such as mobile commerce, ISO/IEC 27001 will play a critical role," says Jai Menon, director customer service and technology of Bharti Airtel. "Apart from securing digital data, we are also including physical data security as part of this initiative."
The organization began rolling out a comprehensive information security policy in 2003 and earned its first certification two years ago.
"We will need to sustain this initiative through continued compliance," Menon adds. "While it took tremendous involvement from the entire organization to achieve this feat, what makes it extra special is the sheer extent of its scope, which encompassed all the strategic business units of Bharti Airtel, comprising all the circles of mobile services and all the hubs of both, Telemedia Services and Enterprise Services."
The scope also includes all Data Centres, network zones, landing stations, switch locations and Airtel Centre.
To date, Bharti Airtel has been awarded 29 ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certificates by BSI. Based on the International Register of ISMS Certificates, this represents the largest number of ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certificates awarded to any single company in India across all sectors.
For more information on ISO/IEC 27001, visit http://www.bsigroup.com/en/Assessment-and-certification-services/management-systems/Standards-and-Schemes/ISO-IEC-27001/
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