Hackers access exam question bank of Central University of Punjab – education

Central University of Punjab (CUP), Bathinda, has cancelled 13 exams held from July 6-Eight after it discovered that its question bank had been hacked.

Vice-chancellor RK Kohli on Friday stated that the system was discovered compromised on Wednesday and all 13 exams carried out from July 6-Eight have been cancelled. “Academics have been requested to organize question papers for all topics and new dates of exams can be introduced quickly,” he stated.

Kohli stated the matter got here to gentle after a couple of school members and his workplace acquired an electronic mail from an unknown particular person, claiming that the question bank had been hacked. “The e-mail was despatched from ProtonMail, an finish-to-finish encrypted and paid electronic mail service, the place a hyperlink was given. Clicking on it provides access to all questions. It’s a critical matter and a police criticism was lodged on Thursday,” the vice-chancellor stated.

In keeping with police sources, ProtonMail is a extremely subtle cyber platform the place it’s tough to determine the e-mail sender.

In view of the Covid-19 outbreak, the college had determined to conduct examinations on-line the place solely the schedule was launched and college students had the flexibleness to decide on dates to put in writing their exams whereas sitting at residence.

On-line mode adopted resulting from pandemic:

University sources stated the unidentified electronic mail sender had said that the “on-line examination software (developed by CUP) is defective and a quantity of college students have been unable to sit down for the check”.

Nevertheless, school members stated the net mode of examination was non-obligatory for college students and most of them had enrolled for it.

Beforehand, the exams have been carried out on the campus by utilizing intranet. To facilitate college students through the pandemic, this 12 months the net mode was adopted by the CUP.

The college administration stated two mock exams have been carried out efficiently to examine firewall effectivity.

The vice-chancellor stated that to add question papers, on-line access to the question bank was given to lecturers. The system was password-enabled but it surely was compromised at some unknown degree, he added.

10 College students from one state scored exceptionally effectively:

Apparently, the college administration has zeroed down on a bunch of 8-10 college students from a selected state who secured exceptionally effectively within the semester exams carried out on the primary three days.

“It was discovered that these college students had common marks within the earlier semesters however on this session of on-line exams, they scored greater than 92%, a lot larger than different college students. We now have shared these particulars with the police for cyber scrutiny of the matter,” Kohli stated.

Registrar Kanwar Pal Singh Mundra had earlier said {that a} mock check was profitable and out of 500 college students, about 400 had participated from residence with out a lot issue.

Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Aswant Dhaliwal, the investigating officer, stated the police is probing the matter from all angles and are checking if the hacker is related to the college or a educated particular person or an element of a workforce behind the crime.