In a firm response, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee has rejected allegations of a large-scale data breach affecting thousands of JEE (Advanced) aspirants, calling the claims “misleading and factually incorrect”. The institute also confirmed that no sensitive information was compromised or extracted in large quantities after what it described as a temporary misconfiguration of cloud storage.
The clarification comes amid widespread discussions on social media over the alleged disclosure of candidate data, prompting IIT Roorkee to issue detailed clarifications regarding the incident and technical issues involved.
“Misleading and factually incorrect”
The institute, which conducted the JEE (Advanced) exam this year, said the information circulating online does not accurately represent what actually happened. She also claimed that there was an attempt to spread misinformation.
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“The allegations of data breach and invasion of privacy affecting thousands of JEE (Advanced) aspirants are misleading and factually incorrect. The information circulating on social media is misleading and does not accurately reflect what happened. There is an attempt to spread misinformation, which is far from the truth,” IIT Roorkee said in a series of posts on X.
“Read-only” access, without downloading bulk data
IIT Roorkee confirmed that the affected volume was in ‘read-only’ mode, which meant no changes could be made to the data. It also said there was no evidence of widespread data mining.
“The affected volume was read-only, meaning no data could be edited or deleted. Analysis of cloud access logs confirmed that no bulk download occurred (read-only access was limited to less than 0.05 percent of the data),” it said.
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The institute also confirmed that “no sensitive information was hacked or extracted in large quantities,” and added that the incident “had no impact on the exam results, including grades, ranks and category of candidates.”
What happened?
This clarification comes in the wake of allegations made by a teenage cybersecurity researcher, who alleged that the public cloud storage endpoint of the JEE (Advanced) results portal could be accessed without authentication, leading to candidate data being exposed.
Earlier, IIT Roorkee admitted that there was a cloud storage configuration issue affecting the results portal and said the matter was being addressed on priority. The institute also confirmed that the data remained in read-only mode with the record unable to be changed.
A temporary technical problem is beyond worry
According to IIT Roorkee, the situation arose after some urgent technical interventions were made on June 2 to help candidates facing difficulty in accessing admit card data and to ensure smooth functioning of the registration process.
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The institute said these interventions led to “minimal temporary misconfigurations” in the cloud storage component. He also explained that the issue was identified and reported by ethical hacker Raylene Anil.
“The ethical hacker, Mr. Raylin Anil, identified this misconfiguration and reported that he had access to the database in question. The issue was immediately corrected, and access to the data has been restricted,” the institute said.
Recent controversies over exams
CUET-UG 2026, for admission to undergraduate degree programs across India, has been delayed at some centers due to a technical glitch, NTA said. NTA attributed the technical issue to systems managed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
The CUET flaw marks the second blow to NTA in a matter of weeks. The high-stakes medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2026, conducted on May 3, has been canceled amid widespread allegations of paper leakage and structural irregularities.
The Education Ministry has since ordered a CBI probe and scheduled re-examination for over 22 lakh aspirants on June 21.
