Amid the ongoing controversy over the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, Class 12 student Sarthak Sidhant has publicly backed the hacking claims made by alleged hacker Nisarga, asserting that the vulnerabilities in the portal were real and acknowledged by government cybersecurity authorities.
Speaking to news agency IANS, Sarthak said he has known Nisarga for a long time and believes the latter is telling the truth about gaining access to the OSM portal.
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“I know Nisarga from a long time. He is my long-time friend and he is not lying about hacking the OSM portal,” Sarthak said.
He further alleged that Nisarga had extensive access to the system. “Nisarga has complete create, read, update, delete access to the OSM portal. He also has access to the portal released in CBSE circulars,” he claimed.
The remarks come after CBSE and the National Testing Agency (NTA) reportedly denied that their OSM system had been hacked.
Questioning the board’s position, Sarthak referred to the role of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the country’s nodal cybersecurity agency.
“So if CBSE is talking that CBSE does not know about it, why did CERT acknowledge it?” he asked.
According to Sarthak, CERT-In had acknowledged vulnerabilities that were reported by Nisarga. “CERT acknowledged the vulnerabilities like what Nisarga offered, so CERT did acknowledge the vulnerabilities. So I say CBSE is not right about telling that the OSM system was not hacked,” he said.
The allegations are the latest development in the widening row surrounding CBSE’s OSM platform, which has come under scrutiny following concerns raised by students over answer-sheet access and evaluation processes.
However, Sarthak’s claims remain allegations, and no official findings establishing a successful compromise of the OSM system have been made public so far. CBSE has maintained that the system was not hacked and has rejected allegations suggesting otherwise.
The controversy has sparked debate over cybersecurity, transparency, and the integrity of digital examination systems used by educational bodies across the country.
(With inputs from IANS)