CBSE revaluation portal targeted in cyber attack, 50 students access system
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New Delhi: The payment system of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) revaluation portal was targeted in a “malicious attack”, allowing around 50 students to gain unauthorised access to the system, government sources said on Friday.
According to the sources, the attack affected the portal’s payment gateway, resulting in abnormal fee displays for some users.
“There were some unauthorised attacks on the portal. The payment gateway was with respect to HDFC. About 50-odd children had got in,” a source said.
The issue reportedly caused significant fluctuations in the fee amounts displayed on the portal. In some cases, students were shown payable amounts ranging from as little as Re 1 to as much as Rs 67,000-68,000.
“I think out of fun or out of mala fide intention, one rupee was shown and then Rs 67,000-68,000. There were about 50 children in whose cases the amount had changed,” the source said.
The glitch was linked to the HDFC payment gateway integrated with the CBSE system and occurred shortly after the portal became operational.
“The portal for quite some time was not functional. There were issues with respect to the amount where 50 children who came in manipulated the system,” the source added.
To strengthen the payment infrastructure, CBSE has integrated four public sector banks — State Bank of India, Canara Bank, Indian Bank and Bank of Maharashtra — as additional payment gateways.
Experts from IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur and the Digital Infrastructure Corporation of India are currently examining the portal and payment gateway integration to identify vulnerabilities and improve system security.
“The teams are examining the code and the system to make it seamless and glitch-free,” the source said.
The issue was also discussed at a meeting held on May 24 between Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman following reports of payment and technical difficulties faced by students during the CBSE post-result and revaluation process.
During the discussions, it was decided that the four public sector banks would assist CBSE in strengthening its payment gateway infrastructure and ensuring seamless integration with the post-examination portal, the Education Ministry said.
“Their payment gateways have been synced with the CBSE portal. We conducted a test run yesterday and found that it was working well,” the source said.
The source further noted that the system had previously faced capacity-related issues. To address these concerns, CBSE migrated the portal infrastructure to [Amazon Web Services (AWS)](https://aws.amazon.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com).
“Earlier, there were issues of space. Eventually, we moved to AWS. The system is now operating on AWS,” the source added.
With PTI inputs