I read in one of the Indian newspapers that their security services were on the verge of closing down a terror operation focused on the international outsourcing industry. It claimed that the Indians suspected a new threat where well-trained Pakistanis would obtain jobs in Indian companies where the service provided formed a critical part of the supply chain for a Western company, allowing them to strike at the very heart of Western civilisation by bring various companies to their knees in some form of co-ordinated effort.

It all sounds far-fetched and positively paranoid – rather Casino Royale. This reporting also perpetuates the animosity that still simmers between India and Pakistan. For all the diplomacy and recent thawing in relations there is still a great mistrust between these two nations. I recall being at the Indian Independence Day party of one of the larger technology firms in Bangalore a couple of years ago. I was there to interview the chief executive, who was held up, so I joined the staff in their Friday afternoon celebrations.

One group were conducting various ‘what-if’ scenarios – asking each other what they would do in certain outlandish situations. They question to one young software developer was: “What would you do if you personally could control the Indian nuclear arsenal?” His immediate reply was: “Destroy the whole of Pakistan!” Cheers went all round. I was shocked. These kids were young, in good jobs, and had the benefit of a college education yet they still continued to hate their smaller neighbour - for no apparent reason I could see.

I don’t want to get into the rights and wrongs of the India and Pakistan conflict – there are plenty of other bloggers doing that job, but I did want to comment on the idea that supply chain terrorism might be a genuine threat and not just because of this particular geography. There are conflicts in many other regions beyond just this one alone.

Think about the changes in technology over recent times. Technology used to be physical; there was a tactile quality to it. You could go to an equipment room within your office and touch the servers, even if backups were located offsite. In addition, the architecture was all locked together and tightly coupled – systems that integrated together did so in a very pre-determined way.

Now we have far looser architectures, such as services-oriented architecture (SOA), that focus far less on the physical kit and far more on defining the service you need from technology. You no longer care where the kit is located, so long as the service is delivered when you push a button. Changes to the services are far more likely to be outsourced to someone outside the company, and possible even outside the country.

Imagine the chaos if the website of every retail bank in the UK was brought down simultaneously, or the customer helpline of every major insurer was cut off. There are many new routes to terrorist disruption that may not result in lost life, but can cause financial loss and disruption and in all our plans for a new era of outsourcing we need to bear some of these real issues in mind.