Kumar Bahukhandi
CBSE— www.channel24india.com File
The board said the identified vulnerabilities had been contained and efforts were underway to rule out any other exploitable weaknesses: Reports
NEW DELHI: Amid the controversy over its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has said it is closely monitoring vulnerabilities identified in the OSM portal of its service provider.
In a post on X, the CBSE said an expert team of cyber-security professionals from government agencies and the Indian Institutes of Technology had been working over the past few days to strengthen the system’s security architecture.
The board said the identified vulnerabilities had been contained and efforts were underway to rule out any other exploitable weaknesses. It said the portal was also being shifted to a more secure setup as part of ongoing security enhancement measures.
The CBSE thanked alert citizens and ethical hackers who brought potential security issues to its notice. It said it had already contacted some of them directly and appreciated their role in helping improve the system’s security. The board also invited others who may have identified vulnerabilities or security concerns to share their findings with its security team at secy-cbse@nic.in.
The response comes amid concerns over the security of the OnMark portal, with the CBSE saying corrective measures are being taken to safeguard the system.
Recently, fresh questions were raised over technical glitches in the CBSE’s digital infrastructure after 19-year-old ethical hacker Nisarga Adhikary alleged that answer sheets and question papers stored in an AWS bucket were publicly accessible online. His disclosures about vulnerabilities in CBSE-linked digital platforms triggered a nationwide debate over the board’s technology ecosystem.
A 17-year-old Class 12 student, Sarthak Sidhant, also became a key voice in the CBSE OSM controversy after conducting a detailed analysis of the board’s tender documents. He alleged that the board relaxed key eligibility criteria and reduced certain security requirements during the tender process, leading to Hyderabad-based Coempt Edutech securing the OSM contract.
