IIT Kanpur hires teen cybersecurity researcher who exposed CBSE OSM flaws

Confirming the appointment, IIT Kanpur Director Prof Manindra Agrawal said that Adhikary has joined the institute's C3iHub as an OSINT and Threat Intelligence Engineer.

Adhikary will contribute cybersecurity and threat intelligence initiatives being undertaken by IIT Kanpur's C3iHub (Image via official websites)

By: Education Desk

3 min readNew DelhiJun 12, 2026 04:08 PM IST First published on: Jun 11, 2026 at 01:08 PM IST

Nineteen-year-old cybersecurity researcher Nisarga Adhikary, who recently made national headlines for exposing alleged security flaws in CBSE’s digital evaluation infrastructure, has landed a role at IIT Kanpur. The institute, one of India’s oldest and most renowned engineering institutions, has confirmed that Adhikary has joined its C3iHub as an Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Threat Intelligence Engineer.

The appointment comes just days after his disclosures related to CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system sparked a nationwide debate on examination security, transparency and digital governance.

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Earlier this year, while CBSE was rolling out its OSM-based evaluation process, he began examining publicly accessible components linked to the system. He later claimed to have identified multiple vulnerabilities and reported them to CERT-In in February 2026 before making his findings public. According to his disclosures, the issues included weaknesses in authentication mechanisms and access controls that could potentially have allowed unauthorised access to parts of the evaluation infrastructure.

His findings quickly attracted attention as students, teachers, and parents were already raising concerns about glitches, evaluation inconsistencies, and operational problems linked to the OSM rollout.

Confirming the appointment, IIT Kanpur Director Prof Manindra Agrawal said that Adhikary has joined the institute’s C3iHub as an OSINT and Threat Intelligence Engineer. He described him as a talented young engineer who has demonstrated noteworthy technical capabilities at a young age and said the institute believes he has significant potential.

“Nisarga Adhikary is talented young engineer who has shown notable technical capabilities at a young age. We believe he has significant potential, and working with us at IIT Kanpur will provide him with the opportunities to further develop his capabilities while also contributing to cybersecurity and threat intelligence initiatives at our C3iHub. We wish him the very best in his journey.”

According to the Director, the role will allow Adhikary to further develop his skills while contributing to cybersecurity and threat intelligence initiatives being undertaken by C3iHub. The statement reflects the institute’s view that identifying weaknesses in digital systems and responsibly reporting them are valuable cybersecurity skills that can be channelled into research and national cyber-defence efforts.

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The controversy that brought Adhikary into the spotlight emerged during CBSE’s first large-scale implementation of On-Screen Marking. The system was introduced to digitise the evaluation of answer sheets, with scanned copies being checked online by examiners rather than through conventional paper-based methods.

While the move was aimed at improving transparency and efficiency, the rollout faced criticism from teachers and students over technical issues, delays, and alleged discrepancies in evaluation. Questions about the robustness of the underlying technology soon became part of the larger debate.