The pharmaceutical industry is set to grow by 37.5% next year in India. So, what can companies do to conduct business securely with international clients and partners?

• The technology to transmit data, emails, and other information using strong encryption protocols and methods already exists. Invest in security professionals who understand the technology when get you started. Don’t be fooled into thinking you’ll have to reinvent the wheel.

• Setting up a connection with a foreign country is not unlike doing business with another city in your own country. If they’ll be handling your information, make sure that you know how that data is being protected. Have a professional do a security assessment of any international facilities that work with your data.

• The most difficult part and potential weak link are the people. In general, it’s hard to get people to take security seriously, especially if their own laws are not as stringent. After you leave, you’ll need to make sure that the technology enforces employees to select strong passwords, use their hardware tokens, and whatever else required to follow your internal policies.

I’d like to add, don’t fall into the trap in believing that your own country (which ever one it may be) has superior technology or security practices. Keep in mind that you’ll have a whole host of health care and multiple government regulations to worry about as well.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 3:25 pm by Anil Polat and is filed under general. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.