CBSE Deploys IIT, Govt Cybersecurity Teams to Secure OnMark Portal Amid OSM Controversy
Amid the ongoing controversy surrounding its On-Screen Marking (OSM) evaluation process, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sunday said it has been closely monitoring vulnerabilities flagged in the OnMark portal of its service provider and has deployed cybersecurity experts to strengthen the system.
New Delhi, May 31: Amid the ongoing controversy surrounding its On-Screen Marking (OSM) evaluation process, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sunday said it has been closely monitoring vulnerabilities flagged in the OnMark portal of its service provider and has deployed cybersecurity experts to strengthen the system.
In a post on X, CBSE said an expert team comprising cybersecurity professionals from various government agencies and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has been working over the past few days to secure the platform. CBSE stated that the identified vulnerabilities have been contained and efforts are underway to ensure that no other exploitable weaknesses remain in the system. CBSE Answer Sheet Row: Board Accepts Digital Evaluation Mistake After Student Claims Physics Copy Is Not His, Issues Correct Answer Sheet.
The board also thanked alert citizens and ethical hackers who pointed out potential security issues and said it had directly engaged with some of them. "We have been closely monitoring the vulnerabilities in the OnMark portal of our service provider that are being flagged in the public domain. An expert team of cybersecurity professionals has been deployed over the last few days from across various arms of the government as well as the IITs to fortify these systems, including taking them over to a more secure set up. The identified vulnerabilities have been contained, and other exploitable weaknesses are being ruled out. We are grateful to all alert citizens and ethical hackers pointing out such weaknesses, and have gotten in touch with some of them directly," CBSE said.
This comes at a time when the CBSE is facing mounting pressure following reports of technical failures in its post-result portal and discrepancies in evaluated answer sheets. Earlier, Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi had questioned the transparency of the CBSE tender process for its On-Screen Marking (OSM) digital evaluation system, alleging that technical norms were repeatedly diluted to enable a particular company to secure the contract. CBSE Answer Sheet Row: Class 12 Student Nisarga Adhikary Claims He Hacked On-Screen Marking Portal, Board Issues Clarification.
In a post on X, Gandhi shared a media report on the issue and alleged that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) modified tender conditions multiple times before awarding the contract to COEMPT. The Congress MP alleged that several technical requirements were relaxed during the process, including scanning resolution standards, robotic scanner requirements and software certification norms.
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