IIT panel clears new CBSE re-evaluation portal after cyberattacks

An IIT panel has granted security clearance to CBSE's new re-evaluation portal after the previous platform faced a massive cyberattack. The board dropped its old vendor, and IIT teams were brought in to fortify the new system's security.

The IIT panel has granted security clearance to the examiner-facing Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) evaluation portal, which will be used in the re-evaluation process amid concerns over the platform's security and reports of attempted cyberattacks.

CBSE Portal Targeted by Cyberattack

This comes after the CBSE's re-evaluation portal was targeted by a large-scale cyberattack involving nearly 3.8 million malicious packets on June 3 in an apparent attempt to disrupt the ongoing verification and re-evaluation process.

Security Enhancements and New System

CBSE decided not to use COEMPT Eduteck Pvt Ltd for scanning answer sheets during the ongoing re-evaluation process, an IIT panel member told ANI on Monday. "While the new system retains functionalities similar to the earlier platform, several security enhancements have been incorporated to strengthen data protection and address vulnerabilities identified during the review process," an IIT panel member added.

The IIT panel member said there were many security weaknesses in the Coempt EduTeck portal, which allowed access to data and records. There were multiple ways data could have been accessed. The revised portal has been fortified with additional safeguards to mitigate such risks and ensure secure handling of examination-related information.

Following concerns over the platform's security and reports of attempted cyberattacks, CBSE brought in teams from IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras to review and strengthen the system. The official said IIT Kanpur's cybersecurity team worked for more than ten days on two key systems, which are the CBSE registration portal and the OSM re-evaluation portal.

Grievance Redressal Applications

As of June 4, the Board had received 70,433 applications through the post-result grievance redressal mechanism, including 7,314 applications for verification of marks and 63,119 applications for re-evaluation.

However, all answer-sheet data and records have now been transferred to CBSE servers to ensure greater control over security and operations.

Earlier on Friday, CBSE disclosed that its re-evaluation platform faced large-scale cyberattacks, including a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack involving nearly 3.8 million packets on June 3. The Board had said the attacks were successfully mitigated and that verification, answer-book access and re-evaluation services remained operational. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)