A significant data privacy lapse at IIT-Roorkee has potentially exposed the personal information of over 30,000 students and alumni on a public website for years. The institute has launched an internal inquiry to investigate the breach and assess its cybersecurity measures.
The leaked database reportedly contains sensitive details, including mobile numbers of students and their parents, caste category, financial background, email addresses, year of admission, graduation details, and even photographs. By entering a student's enrollment number on the site, anyone could potentially access their personal details.
According to a professor who spoke on condition of anonymity, the fact that the information can be retrieved using an enrollment number suggests that the data was likely leaked or stolen from the academic affairs section. They believe this is a clear case of cybersecurity and personal privacy breach.
The Times of India alerted IIT-Roorkee about the breach, prompting the institute to take action. UP Singh, the deputy director of IIT-R, stated that the matter has been forwarded to the dean of academic affairs and the dean of student welfare for necessary action.
The website in question is believed to have been running for approximately 10 years. While it had not uploaded data for the current year, older records were reportedly being updated. One student expressed serious concerns that the website operator was sharing vital personal information of the institute's students from an unknown location and for unknown purposes. As of now, officials have not released the names of the affected students and alumni.
This incident raises concerns about internal cyber safeguards at one of India's premier engineering institutes. The breach highlights the importance of digital safety and vigilance, especially for academic institutions that handle large amounts of sensitive personal data. Cybersecurity experts suggest that compromised data could be exploited for malicious activities like identity theft and targeted phishing campaigns.
