CBSE repels major DDoS attack; re-evaluation portal remains fully operational

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) successfully repelled a massive cyberattack targeted at its official portal on the very first day of its application window. According to an official statement, cybercriminals launched a series of coordinated attacks aimed at disrupting services on the board's examination re-evaluation and certificate verification website, right when thousands of students were actively using it.
Despite the intensity of the attack, CBSE confirmed that its robust defense mechanisms functioned perfectly, ensuring the portal remained fully operational and resilient. The website went live at 7:00 AM and continued to serve students without any technical disruptions.

Detailing the incident on its official X (formerly Twitter) handle, the CBSE security wing revealed that the portal was hit by a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack designed to crash the computer networks.
The attackers inundated the portal with an astonishing 1.5 million fake hits within a mere two-minute window. Additionally, over 100,000 unauthorized attempts were made to breach and access sensitive files stored within the CBSE system.

Despite the hostile cyber activity and the resulting surge in traffic, the infrastructure managed the load efficiently. The website seamlessly accommodated over 8,000 concurrent users. By 3:00 PM on the opening day, more than 18,000 students had successfully submitted their re-evaluation applications without facing downtime.
The board had recently upgraded the portal based on feedback from previous years, notably extending the login session duration to streamline the application process. Anticipating potential threats, CBSE had also preemptively strengthened its cybersecurity posture by implementing strict security protocols, including mandatory ID card verification for user logins, which ultimately mitigated the impact of the attack.