A 19-year-old self-described ethical hacker who exposed the alleged security gaps in CBSE's on-screen marking system (OSM) was recruited by IIT-Kanpur's cybersecurity research hub, an official said on Thursday.
Nisarga Adhikary, who recently cleared his class 12 examinations, joined the C3iHub at IIT-K's cybersecurity and cyber defence innovation centre as an OSINT and threat intelligence engineer on a contractual basis.
The move comes at a time when concerns over the security of digital public infrastructure are intensifying, especially in education and governance.
Adhikary first came into the spotlight after publicly flagging vulnerabilities in CBSE's newly introduced OSM system, a platform used for the digital evaluation of board examination answer sheets.
He alleged flaws in access controls, password management and authentication mechanisms, sparking widespread discussion in cybersecurity circles and prompting scrutiny of the system's safeguards.
The CBSE, however, maintained that the vulnerabilities were limited to a testing environment and did not affect the live evaluation infrastructure.
Speaking to PTI, IIT-K's director, Manindra Agrawal, described Adhikary as a talented young engineer who has demonstrated noteworthy technical capabilities at a young age.
"We believe he has significant potential, and his joining IIT-K will provide him with the opportunity to enhance his capabilities while contributing to cybersecurity and threat intelligence initiatives at C3iHub,” he said.
At C3iHub, Adhikary will analyse publicly available information, identify vulnerabilities in digital systems and support cybersecurity threat assessment initiatives, an IIT-K official said.
Speaking about his role, Adhikary said the position marks his first full-time opportunity in a dedicated cybersecurity environment.
"In my earlier work, I mostly worked as a software engineer while cybersecurity remained more of a passion project," he said, adding that he had previously worked with startup teams and overseas companies.
Though he did not disclose his salary, Adhikary admitted the package was lower than what he had expected after exposure to international projects.
"The salary is decent, but working with US-based companies gave a financial advantage because of dollar earnings," he told the media.
According to Adhikary, his interest in the CBSE portal emerged after noticing widespread criticism over the introduction of the OSM system during the examination season earlier this year.
He said he began examining publicly accessible code loaded through the portal and eventually identified what he described as multiple security weaknesses.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
