CBSE drops Coempt's portal for re-evaluation over ‘security concerns’ to use its own

THe telephone exchange room of Secondary breeding (CBSE) has dropped Coempt Edu Teck’s OnMark program for the re-evaluation of division 12 answer scripts over security concerns, officials said on Friday, with student and examination data migrated to infrastructure under the board’s direct control.The re-evaluation process — under which subject experts will examine answers challenged by students — will be conducted entirely through CBSE’s own portal and is expected to begin next week. CBSE had used Coempt’s OnMark platform to digitally evaluate close to 10 million Class 12 answer scripts before declaring results on May 13 – deploying a new system that has since emerged to have been implemented in a rush that students say has impacted scores.Also read: Coempt gave CBSE cyber certificates that were expired, tied to other client“It is confirmed that re-evaluation of answer copies will take place on CBSE’s website. Security issues on the OnMark portal are the reason behind it. We realised it is better and safer to do it on the CBSE portal so that we have complete control,” a senior IIT Kanpur official told HT, requesting anonymity. IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras are helping CBSE manage the issue.The switch does not amount to a clean break from Coempt’s software. The official said the company’s code, after what he described as significant security upgrades and testing, is being used on CBSE’s own infrastructure — meaning the board is running a patched version of the same codebase on servers it now controls directly.Also read: Exclusive: How CBSE whistleblower Sarthak Sidhant got into computers, hackingCoempt Edu Teck did not respond to HT’s request for a comment.When asked specifically about the security concerns that prompted the platform switch, CBSE did not confirm or deny the reason. “The evaluation process carries the highest standards of integrity, confidentiality and sanctity. The procedures and mechanisms put in place by the board are designed solely to protect the interests of students and ensure a fair, transparent and accurate assessment process,” it said.The IIT team overseeing the technical remediation said it had not yet formally questioned Coempt about the vulnerabilities. “We have not asked Coempt about the vulnerabilities — they will do their own investigation and we will do ours,” the official said. The team’s report on vulnerabilities in the CBSE portal and the OnMark platform is yet to be finalised, this person added.Also read: Exclusive | CBSE whistleblower's message for CJP's Abhijeet Dipke: 'Internet activism fine, but…'Students who applied for scanned copies of their answer scripts between May 19 and May 25 and have received them can raise question-wise objections through CBSE’s post-result portal until June 7. As of June 4, a total of 70,433 successful applications had been received — 7,314 for verification of marks and 63,119 for re-evaluation.CBSE on Friday also said it had filed a formal complaint with the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit of Delhi Police regarding cyberattacks on its post-result services portal. A Delhi Police spokesperson confirmed: “On the basis of a complaint filed by CBSE regarding a series of coordinated cyberattacks on its portal, a case for offence under Section 66 read with Section 43(f) of the IT Act has been registered and investigation taken up.”The four-member IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur expert team — comprising computer systems, process and cybersecurity specialists — was deputed after Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan directed the institutes to assist CBSE on May 24.