The students, after completion of their higher secondary education, are constantly in a state of mind of giving a number of entrance or government examinations so as to choose a proper career. The increasing digitalization has resulted in a number of application forms, including a lot of students’ personal details, being filled or updated online. Hence, the hacking of these websites filled with a number of student’s data can prove to be dangerous in the long run.
The recent incident has resulted in the leakage of around 1.5 Million students’ phone numbers, addresses, email ID, results, and other personal details as well. In addition to this, the details of the students who had appeared for a number of examinations since 2009 are being sold out for different prices ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs 60,000. Although, how this has happened isn’t clear yet. The datasheets comprising of the students’ details are available on the websites such as allstudentdatabase.in, studentsdatabase.in, and kenils.co.in for free as well. The point to be highlighted is that the students who have appeared for the MBA entrance examinations such as MBA CET, CAT, XAT, CMAT, MAT, and others have their details being sold at various prices. Even the engineering as well as medical entrance tests, final year tests of Pune and Lucknow’s universities, or Class XII and Class X board examination-appeared students have their data leaked.
The culprits behind this haven’t been identified yet. It may be anybody from the board or university in-charge, body in-charge of the examination or else any coaching schools preparing the students for the tests. It is very exhaustive to see not only the personal details but also the percentile of the students leaked. The major buyers of these data are business schools, which is disappointing. This is basically been done to either increase the standard of their institute or raise the number of students to be admitted.
According to the various professors from IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore, the students’ data are only disclosed after receiving a prior consent from them for doing so. The data being publically available without their knowing is strictly the violation of the law.
The students whose data are leaked online have the permission to seek justice.