A 19-year-old's claim that a CBSE digital evaluation portal had been compromised has sparked a public exchange that has raised more questions than it has answered, about the board's cybersecurity preparedness, its communication practices, and the robustness of its newly introduced On-Screen Marking system.

CBSE has denied any breach of its actual evaluation infrastructure, stating that the URL circulating on social media, cbse.onmarks.co.in, was not the portal used for real assessment work. It was, the board said, a testing platform containing only sample data with no connection to actual student records, marks or evaluation details.

"At the outset, it is clarified that the portal used for evaluation of answer books bore a different URL, which has neither been compromised nor have the vulnerabilities indicated in the social media post," the board said in an official statement.

It added: "The Board would reassure all concerned about the safeguards implemented to ensure the integrity of the platform actually deployed."

How the controversy developed

The claims originated with a Class 12 student, who described himself as an ethical hacker, and alleged that the CBSE portal had been accessed or compromised in February 2026. The allegations quickly gained traction online, coinciding with broader student concerns about transparency in CBSE's post-result processes and re-evaluation procedures under the newly introduced OSM mechanism.

The episode took a further turn late Tuesday night. After CBSE issued a clarification tweet, the student alleged the board subsequently deleted the post. The student then claimed that the revised URL shared in CBSE's clarification itself contained technical vulnerabilities, reigniting the debate rather than resolving it.

What CBSE says about the OSM system

CBSE defended the On-Screen Marking mechanism, which was introduced this year as part of a broader effort to digitise the evaluation process. The board said the platform includes grievance redressal mechanisms for students and maintained that no vulnerabilities affecting actual assessment processes have been detected or reported.

The board reiterated that strong security measures are in place in the operational evaluation system, and that neither marks nor student information stored on the actual evaluation portal had been compromised at any point.

Published on: May 27, 2026 8:17 AM IST