NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) revaluation portal experienced a significant disruption due to a malicious cyber attack, impacting the payment system and affecting around 50 students, government sources have confirmed. The attack led to erratic fee displays on the portal, with amounts fluctuating wildly from as little as one rupee to as high as Rs 68,000.
Information was available with The Chenab Times indicating that the issue stemmed from unauthorized incursions into the portal, specifically targeting the payment gateway integrated with HDFC Bank. Approximately 50 students were found to have made entries or experienced changes in their fee amounts following the hack. This anomaly occurred during the portal’s initial operational phase.
The compromised payment gateway, initially linked to HDFC, was a focal point of the attack. Sources described the manipulation as potentially stemming from either jest or malicious intent, leading to the drastic price discrepancies for affected students. The portal had reportedly been non-functional for a considerable period before these issues surfaced.
In response to the incident, the CBSE has integrated four Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) banks—State Bank of India, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, and Bank of Maharashtra—as additional payment gateways to bolster its infrastructure. Experts from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Madras and IIT Kanpur, in collaboration with the Digital Infrastructure Corporation of India, are undertaking a thorough examination of the system. Their objective is to identify vulnerabilities, strengthen the portal’s security, and enhance the integration of the payment gateways to ensure a seamless and glitch-free user experience.
The cybersecurity concerns were recently a subject of discussion between Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 24. The meeting focused on addressing the payment and technical challenges encountered by students during the CBSE’s post-result and revaluation processes. It was resolved during this discussion that the four mentioned public sector banks would provide support to the CBSE in fortifying its payment gateway infrastructure and its integration with the post-exam portal.
A source indicated that the payment gateways of these PSU banks have now been synchronized with the CBSE portal. A test run conducted recently showed promising results, suggesting the system is functioning effectively. To further enhance the portal’s capacity and stability, the system has been migrated to Amazon Web Services (AWS), addressing previous concerns related to server space and performance.
The Chenab Times News Desk