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Mumbai/New Delhi: The competition among lakhs of students for prestigious colleges and courses makes India’s vast education sector a prime target for cybercrime, experts said, at a time when authorities have pointed to leaked question papers in the so-called dark net. Moreover, data of innumerable students could also be vulnerable to unauthorised access and misuse.
Amid massive student protests that have been going on for the past two weeks, the government has decided to withdraw grace marks in the pre-medical entrance exam for MBBS and related courses, cancel an exam for junior research fellowship in universities, and postpone another exam to admit students to postgraduate medical courses.
“So far, the use of digital technologies in assessment has been limited,” said Akhilesh Tuteja, global head of cybersecurity at KPMG. “Only the management and storage of assessment papers is digital, but technology is moving at a fast pace and security also needs to catch up.” He said that when more aspects of education become digital, bigger risks could emerge. “Cybercrimes mimic physical crimes. The attacks are currently happening on question papers, databases, etc., but in the future we may see cyber attacks in the form of unauthorized score card alterations and deepfakes,” he warned.
Full marks and criticism
The national entrance exam came under criticism after 67 students scored full marks in the latest National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET, which ranks students for medical, dental, nursing and related courses. The controversy escalated after the grace marks surfaced and the arrest of several individuals who are believed to have sold the leaked question papers for lakhs. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is now investigating the case.
Prasanna Kumar, head of financial services and professional group for India at consultancy firm Aon, said, “Cyber threat in education sector is one of the most lucrative forms of earning money…where people can pay lakhs to access databases that would affect anyone from 3 years to 30 years of age (from going to school to taking entrance exams).” “The database is available with the institutes and can be breached to share misleading advertisements, send targeted information and commit more serious cyber crimes with the available information,” Kumar said.
Cyber security experts say that hackers can break in when the paper is prepared, printed, sent for distribution and delivered to the examination centre. After this, they can demand money in exchange for not releasing the paper and create disruption.
The allure of the dark web
Dheeraj Gupta, chief technology officer at fraud detection and prevention firm mFilterIt, said security breaches are more common in banks and financial institutions, but hacking of IT systems is also common for exams. “Standard phishing, honeypot techniques are used and groups reach out to students in the dark net with the details they have. After the stories of question paper leaks, more students may be attracted to the dark net to get more information.”
On June 20, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said a CBI probe was ordered after his officials found that the question papers leaked from the dark net matched the original ones created by the National Testing Agency. The ministry was alerted about the leaked question paper by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Home Ministry. The leaked question papers appear on messaging channels such as Telegram, and their encrypted nature makes it challenging to track them without high-level scrutiny, the minister had said. The dark net is a series of encrypted networks used to store and communicate information.
According to legal experts, the recently enacted Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, aimed at preventing paper leaks and exam malpractices, lacks provisions to effectively prevent cheating taking place on the dark net or encrypted messaging apps.
“While we acknowledge the positive efforts of the Act in criminalising tampering with computer systems, networks and sources and creating fake websites for cheating and monetary gain, the Act fails to comprehensively address the ever-evolving landscape of cyber cheating in examinations,” said Rishi Sehgal, Supreme Court advocate-on-record. “Such laws need to be more adaptable to effectively counter the increasingly sophisticated unfair means and tactics used by cheaters in the ever-evolving digital age.”
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