CBSE says OnMark portal vulnerabilities contained amid security concerns

📌 Summary:

• CBSE on May 31, 2026 said vulnerabilities in its ON-SCREEN MARKING (OnMark) platform have been "contained" and other exploitable weaknesses are being "ruled out"
• Statement came AFTER ethical hackers' public posts exposed the security flaws in the OnMark portal
• OnMark is the CBSE platform used for digital evaluation of board examination answer sheets
• CBSE expressed gratitude to "alert citizens" for flagging weaknesses
• Backdrop: Congress and other opposition parties have alleged a possible "data breach" of student answer sheets — Rahul Gandhi termed it "fraud in scanning process"
• Larger issue: digital examination infrastructure is now a high-value target for cyber intrusion; tens of crores of student answer sheets, marks data and PII are stored

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 Internal Security — Cyber security of public digital infrastructure (Critical Information Infrastructure under IT Act 2000, Sec 70); responsible vulnerability disclosure; data protection (DPDP Act 2023 obligations on government bodies); e-governance integrity.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• OnMark = CBSE's On-Screen Marking portal for digital evaluation of Class 10 & 12 board answer sheets
• Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) under MeitY handles cyber-incident response in India
• IT Act 2000 Sec 70 enables designation of Critical Information Infrastructure (CII)
• Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 governs personal data; Data Protection Board (proposed) is the regulator
• Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under MHA handles cybercrime coordination

🔑 Key Term: Responsible Disclosure / Ethical Hacking — security research practice where vulnerability finders privately notify the affected entity (and a CERT) before public disclosure, allowing time to patch — central debate when researchers publicly post findings, as in this CBSE case.