CBSE portal could have been hacked: IIT-M director Kamakoti

Chennai: A day after the Union govt sought help from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur to sort out the technical issues faced by the CBSE’s online portal, IIT Madras director V Kamakoti said the site might have faced a cyberattack, which could have denied access and payment for scanned copies of Class XII answer scripts.

Due to the technical glitch in applying for revaluation, the CBSE has extended the window for applying for revaluation till May 25.

“Now, the portal is functioning smoothly. A two-member team from IIT Madras, along with a faculty member from IIT Kanpur, will conduct a root cause analysis to know why the portal was not functioning for two days. They will also check whether the portal came under a cyberattack, analyze the log and try to identify the bug,” Kamakoti told TOI.

“In the cyberattack, they could not steal money. But they could deny service, and prevent students and parents from applying for revaluation. If it is a denial of service, we need to put certain web application firewalls,” he added.

He further said the problem could also have been caused by issues in buffering. “The problem could have been caused by the interface between the website and the payment gateway. The team will check the complete health of the portal and suggest remedial measures to CBSE staff to prevent such large-scale disruptions in the future,” Kamakoti said.

Earlier, the Union education ministry said the team from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur will examine portal stability, server performance and overall robustness of the IT infrastructure and assist in taking corrective measures.

CBSE faced flak for technical glitches on its portal to apply for scanned copies of answer sheets, which opened on May 19. Due to the tough physics, maths and accountancy papers, many students got low scores and wanted to apply for revaluation by obtaining the copies of scanned answer sheets.