CBSE gets final cybersecurity clearance for re-evaluation portal after IIT revie ...
The Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE) has received final security clearance for its examiner-facing re-evaluation portal following an IIT-led cybersecurity review that completed its final round of testing on Friday night, clearing the way for the reassessment of Class 12 answer scripts, according to a report by The Indian Express.The IIT teams will remain on standby during the re-evaluation process to address any fresh issues that may arise, the news outlet reported citing sources.
The clearance comes days after concerns were raised over the security of the Board’s digital examination systems. Earlier, it was reported that CBSE had delayed the launch of its Post-Result Activities (PRA) portal after expert teams from two Indian Institutes of Technology identified multiple high-severity vulnerabilities in the Board’s software infrastructure.
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Following the review, CBSE reportedly decided against using the Coempt EduTeck platform, which powered this year’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, for the re-evaluation process. Instead, student and examination data were shifted to infrastructure directly managed by the Board, while the re-evaluation workflow was redesigned to function through CBSE-controlled systems, the report mentioned.
Sources told IE that the IIT-led teams are now preparing a set of recommendations for the Education Ministry and CBSE aimed at strengthening cybersecurity standards for future examination software. The recommendations are expected to emphasise integrating cybersecurity safeguards at the earliest stages of software development.
The report will also recommend that all examination software undergo comprehensive “red-teaming” exercises by independent expert groups before deployment, an official aware of the developments told IE.
Red team-blue team audit
The cybersecurity audit employed the “red team-blue team” methodology. Under this approach, the “blue” team – comprising CBSE’s original developers, experts from IIT Madras and the Digital India Corporation (DIC) – worked to identify and fix vulnerabilities. Simultaneously, the “red” team from IIT Kanpur attempted to breach the system and uncover weaknesses, as per the report.
According to the official, the final round of testing concluded on Friday night with no major vulnerabilities detected.
“From our side, we gave a green signal on Friday night. Whatever we found has been fixed and we could not find anything more. There may be some minor vulnerabilities, but nothing that would have any impact,” the official told IE.
Re-evaluation process to begin
The examiner-facing platform had remained inaccessible even after the PRA portalwas launched on June 2. While students were able to submit requests for verification and re-evaluation, answer scripts could not be assigned to examiners until the required security clearance was obtained.
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Sources told IE that CBSE has begun informing examiners that they can access the system and start processing students’ re-evaluation requests.
Under the revised system, examiners will review only those specific questions that students have flagged for re-evaluation rather than reassessing entire answer books. The process will be conducted digitally, with examiners accessing scanned answer scripts on tablets and awarding marks according to CBSE’s original marking scheme.
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