Nisarga Adhikary Joins IIT Kanpur: Teen Who Exposed CBSE Portal Flaws Appointed at C3iHub as an OSINT and Threat Intelligence Engineer

Nisarga Adhikary, a 19-year-old cybersecurity researcher who recently drew attention for identifying critical vulnerabilities in the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) portal, has been appointed as an Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Threat Intelligence Engineer at IIT Kanpur's cybersecurity and cyber defence research centre, C3iHub.

The appointment comes weeks after Adhikary published a blog detailing security flaws in the CBSE portal, including issues that could have potentially exposed sensitive information. IIT Kanpur Director Manindra Agrawal said he reached out to the teenager after reading the post and later offered him a role within the institute's cybersecurity team. CBSE Answer Sheet Row: Class 12 Student Nisarga Adhikary Claims He Hacked On-Screen Marking Portal, Board Issues Clarification.

IIT Kanpur Recruits Nisarga Adhikary

Confirming the appointment, Agrawal said Adhikary has joined IIT Kanpur's cybersecurity team as an engineer on a contractual basis.

"Nisarga Adhikary has been appointed as an engineer in our cybersecurity team. A few years ago, we had similarly recruited a couple of young engineers for the same team. I am not sure whether he is the youngest recruit at IIT Kanpur, but he is certainly among the youngest engineers to have been hired by the institute," Agrawal said. Who Are Vedant Shrivastava, Nisarga Adhikary and Sarthak Sidhant? The 3 Gen-Z Students Who Put CBSE's OSM System Under Scrutiny.

In a separate statement, the IIT Kanpur director added: “Nisarga Adhikary has joined IIT Kanpur's C3iHub as an OSINT and Threat Intelligence Engineer. He is a talented young engineer who has demonstrated noteworthy technical capabilities at a young age. We believe he has significant potential, and working at IIT Kanpur will provide him with the opportunity to further develop his capabilities while contributing to cybersecurity and threat intelligence initiatives at C3iHub. We wish him the very best in his journey ahead.”

From Student Researcher to Cybersecurity Professional

Adhikary, who cleared his Class 12 examinations this year, will work on analysing actionable information from publicly available sources, identifying vulnerabilities in websites and applications, and supporting organisations in addressing potential security risks.

“I am excited about this opportunity because it is the first time I will be working in a security-focused role. In my earlier jobs, I primarily worked as a software engineer, while cybersecurity was more of a hobby,” Adhikary said.

Despite his young age, Adhikary is no stranger to the technology sector. He said he began coding when he was six or seven years old and developed a deeper interest in cybersecurity during middle school.

“I started coding when I was six or seven years old, but I became seriously involved in cybersecurity and began participating in Capture the Flag (CTF) and other cybersecurity competitions when I was in Class 6,” he said.

CTF (Capture the Flag) competitions are cybersecurity challenges where participants test ethical hacking skills by identifying hidden vulnerabilities and solving security puzzles in controlled environments.

The CBSE Portal Vulnerabilities

Adhikary came into the national spotlight after publicly disclosing vulnerabilities in CBSE's On-Screen Marking portal, a digital platform used by affiliated schools to upload and manage examination marks.

In his blog, Adhikary said he reported the vulnerabilities to India's cybersecurity watchdog CERT-In on February 25. According to his findings, the portal contained five critical flaws, including the storage of a master password in plain text, which allegedly allowed users to bypass two-factor authentication.

He said only one vulnerability was addressed after he reported the issues, while others remained unresolved until the portal was eventually taken offline. The disclosure sparked broader discussions about cybersecurity standards in educational technology systems and the importance of responsible vulnerability disclosure.

Following directions from Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on May 24, experts from IIT Kanpur and Indian Institute of Technology Madras were deputed to help CBSE address technical and cybersecurity issues affecting its post-result services portal. Agrawal, who was part of that exercise, met Adhikary in New Delhi approximately two weeks ago.

“Adhikary is undoubtedly very talented, but he still has a great deal to learn and further develop his capabilities. IIT Kanpur offers him that opportunity. I believe he will do very well if he continues to work hard,” Agrawal said.

No Plans for College, Focus on Startups

Adhikary said he is not currently planning to enrol in a traditional college programme and instead wants to focus on technology products and entrepreneurship.

“I want to work on building on startups and products which people use. I am not much interested in academia,” he said. While declining to disclose his remuneration, Adhikary acknowledged that the compensation was lower than he had anticipated.

“The salary is decent, but I was expecting a bit more. I’m used to working on projects and with companies based in the US, and I do miss the financial advantage that comes with earning in dollars because of the USD-INR conversion,” he said.

His appointment at C3iHub highlights the increasing recognition of ethical hacking, responsible disclosure practices and young cybersecurity talent in India's growing digital ecosystem.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 11, 2026 01:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).