Tata Consultancy Services, India's first billion-dollar software firm, has achieved another milestone with three of its key facilities at Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai being simultaneously awarded the British Standard 7799 (BS7799-2: 2002) certification for its iSecurity initiative.

BS7799 certification is one of the premier codes of practice for information security management in the industry.

The audit was conducted by the international audit firm of Det Norske Veritas, one of the world's leading certification bodies/registrars offering the latest in management systems certification services.

The audit was conducted in two phases at Shollinganallur (Chennai), Noida-II (Delhi) and SEEPZ (Mumbai) centres housing around 5000 consultants and catering to a large number of TCS' most valued customers.

DNV benchmarked TCS against the best of industry standards and commended the documentation and controls implemented at the locations.

Speaking on the achievement, S Ramadorai, CEO, Tata Consultancy Services, said, "This certification proves our intent and capability to provide a secure and reliable work environment for our customers and associates."

"Security is a way of life; it is an ongoing process and thus any certification cannot be seen as the achievement of a 'goal'. It has provided TCS a common framework to develop, implement, and effectively measure information security management practices globally across all its development centers."

TCS' chief security officer, Sanjay Bahl, said: "The certification will help TCS to demonstrate its inherent capabilities of maintaining a high standard of information security, build credibility and confidence amongst its customer community and enforce TCS's commitment to IT security on a global basis."