The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) launched its highly anticipated verification and re-evaluation portal for Class 12 students on Tuesday, but within hours, the board reported a series of cyber threats targeting the platform. According to CBSE, the portal received nearly 1.5 million hits within just two minutes of going live, and over 100,000 attempts were made to gain unauthorized access to files. The board attributed these activities to malicious actors seeking to disrupt services.
Portal Performance and Student Response
Despite the cyberattacks, the CBSE re-evaluation portal remained operational. As of 3 pm on the launch day, more than 16,000 students had successfully submitted their applications. The board stated that the portal was supporting over 8,000 concurrent users. In a post on X, CBSE said, "While thousands of students accessed the CBSE re-evaluation portal today, malicious actors attempted to disrupt services through a barrage of cyberattacks. Most recent being a denial of service attack attempt causing 1.5 million hits on the portal within a matter of 2 minutes and more than 1 lakh attempts of unauthorised file access."
Improvements and Feedback
CBSE further noted that despite the challenges, the platform has been refined based on student feedback. Improvements include extended session time limits to make the submission process more convenient and seamless. The portal went live a day after a CBSE official informed ANI that the launch, originally scheduled for Monday, had been delayed due to technical issues. The postponement had raised concerns among students and parents, especially after reports of glitches during the answer-sheet access process earlier this month.
Cybersecurity Measures
The rollout comes amid CBSE's efforts to bolster cybersecurity safeguards around the OnMark portal, operated by its service provider. On Sunday, CBSE announced that a team of cybersecurity experts from various government agencies and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) had been deployed to strengthen the platform's security infrastructure. The board had previously maintained that the portal would ensure a transparent and seamless mechanism for students seeking verification of marks and re-evaluation of answer books.
CBSE's swift response to the cyber threats and continuous improvements to the portal demonstrate its commitment to providing a secure and efficient platform for students. The board urges students to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities.
