CBSE OSM System Security Flaws

The India — Central Board of Secondary Education>>> (CBSE) is embroiled in controversy over its newly implemented On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for Class 12 examinations. Initially, the board denied claims of a security breach made by ethical hacker Nisarga Adhikary>>>, stating the compromised URL was a testing site. However, the India — Central Board of Secondary Education>>> later admitted to security vulnerabilities in its OnMark portal and deployed cybersecurity experts from government agencies and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to fortify the system. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan>>> took responsibility for the discrepancies, directing measures to strengthen the portal and integrate secure payment gateways with public sector banks like State Bank of India>>>, Indian Bank>>>, Bank of Baroda>>>, and Canara Bank>>>. Students have reported issues such as blurred scans, missing pages, answer sheet mix-ups (around 20 cases), and unexpectedly low marks, leading to manual re-evaluation for approximately 13,000 answer sheets. Sarthak Sidhant>>>, a Class 12 student, alleged relaxed tender criteria favored Coempt Edutech>>> for the OSM contract. The India — National Students Union of India>>> (NSUI) has filed a Public Interest Litigation in the India — Delhi High Court>>>, seeking an independent inquiry and remedial measures for affected students. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi>>> has also politicized the issue, calling for a judicial probe.