A 19-year-old cybersecurity researcher, whose claims of vulnerabilities in… CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system sparked a national debate, and he was hired by IIT Kanpur, despite receiving a lower salary than he had hoped for.
Nisarja Adhikari, who passed his Class 12 exams this year, has been appointed as Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Threat Intelligence Architect at IIT Kanpur’s Cybersecurity Innovation Hub, C3iHub. His appointment comes weeks after a blog post detailing alleged security flaws in CBSE’s OSM portal caught national attention and led to scrutiny of the board’s digital assessment infrastructure.
Read also | IIT Kanpur hires Nisarga Adhikary, the teenager who reported flaws in CBSE’s OSM system
Salary expectations
While neither Adhikary nor IIT Kanpur revealed the exact remuneration for the role, the teenager admitted that it was less than he expected, especially after working on projects for US-based companies.
“The salary is good, but I was expecting a little more. I am used to working on projects and with US-based companies, and I miss the financial advantage that comes with earning in dollars due to the conversion of US dollars to Indian rupees,” he told HT.
IIT Kanpur director Manindra Agrawal said he contacted Adhikary after reading his blog post on CBSE portal.
“Nisarja Adhikari has been appointed as an engineer in our cybersecurity team. A few years ago, we had similarly appointed two young engineers to the same team. I am not sure if he is the youngest recruit at IIT Kanpur, but he is definitely among the youngest engineers to be appointed to the institute.”
What the job entails
At the institute, Adhikari will analyze publicly available information and identify vulnerabilities in websites and applications, helping organizations detect and address potential security risks. He has been appointed on a contractual basis within the Cyber Security team at IIT Kanpur.
Speaking about the role, Adhikari told HT: “I am excited about this opportunity as it is the first time I will be working in a security-focused role. In my previous jobs, I have primarily worked as a staffer.” Software engineer, while cybersecurity was more of a hobby.
Although he is still early adulthood, he says he already has industry experience with startups and engineering teams. “He also served as founding engineer at one point. He has also worked in some big VC-funded startups,” he told HT earlier.
Read also | How a Class XII student became a techie at the age of 19 allegedly hacked the CBSE exam website
CBSE OSM Controversy
Adhikary became known after he discovered multiple vulnerabilities in CBSE’s OSM system, which was introduced this year for evaluating answer scripts of Class 12 board exams. According to its claims, only one issue was addressed initially, while other issues remained unresolved until the portal was eventually removed.
Among the most serious accusations he described was what he called ““Master password issue” that potentially bypassed security controls in the test environment. CBSE maintained that the vulnerabilities were limited to the exam portal and did not affect the actual assessment system.
He said Adhikari’s work on the issue began out of curiosity after observing widespread discussion about the newly introduced system. “So, in February, when the exams started, CBSE just said that it would conduct OSM this year. This was criticized all over the media. People are angry,” he said. He added that he began examining how the system processes data by studying publicly available code loaded into browsers.
“I started reading the code that was fetched into the browser when the portal was opened,” he told HT earlier.
He said no one in his family works in cybersecurity, as both parents work in finance.
Agrawal believes that IIT Kanpur can provide the necessary environment for a young researcher to further develop his skills. “Adhikari is undoubtedly very talented, but he still has a lot to learn and develop his abilities. IIT Kanpur is offering him this opportunity. I believe he will do very well if he continues to work hard,” he said.
