The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has addressed social media concerns regarding the scan quality of answer sheets on its OnMark portal. The board clarified that visible folds and shadows on scanned documents are minor visual artifacts from high-speed scanning equipment. CBSE assures students, parents, and examiners that these effects do not impact the readability of written content.
Security Audit Underway
An extensive secondary audit of the imaging repository is currently in progress. This audit is being conducted by a specialized team comprising government cybersecurity experts and technical specialists from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The goal is to ensure absolute transparency and precision in the digital records.
CBSE stated that the original physical answer sheets remain secure and undamaged. The digitization process aims to fully represent the original script without data loss. For any digital copy with readability issues due to scanning glint, the service provider is required to immediately replace it with a new version.
Data Breach Allegations Denied
Reports emerged on social media claiming a data breach involving CBSE's digital answer sheets and question papers from 2026. A hacker alleged an AWS bucket misconfiguration exposed these documents, making them publicly accessible. A political leader further characterized this as a major data breach affecting two million students.
CBSE officially refuted these allegations. The board stated that the exposed link was a testing site containing only sample data. The organization is monitoring vulnerabilities on its service provider's OnMark portal and has deployed cybersecurity professionals.
Quality Control Measures
CBSE has implemented stringent quality control measures with its service provider. These measures are in place to address any potential readability issues with scanned answer sheets. The board is committed to maintaining the integrity of the digital assessment system.
