Teen who flagged CBSE portal flaws lands job at IIT Kanpur

Nisarga Adhikary, a 19-year-old cybersecurity researcher, has been appointed as an Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Threat Intelligence Engineer at IIT Kanpur’s technology innovation hub, C3iHub, weeks after his public disclosure of security vulnerabilities in the CBSE’s examination infrastructure put him in the national spotlight.

According to a report by India Today, Adhikary first drew attention after identifying security flaws in CBSE’s Online Submission of Marks (OSM) portal — a platform used by schools to upload student scores — and reporting them responsibly rather than exploiting them. He also demonstrated the alleged weaknesses by playing the viral “Bad Apple” animation on a CBSE portal.

IIT Kanpur Director Manindra Agrawal reached out to Adhikary after reading a blog post the young researcher published on May 22 detailing the vulnerabilities. Adhikary has been taken on in a contractual capacity. “Nisarga Adhikary has been appointed as an engineer in our cybersecurity team. He is certainly among the youngest engineers to have been hired by the institute,” Agrawal said.

“In my earlier jobs, I primarily worked as a software engineer, while cybersecurity was more of a hobby,” Nisarga was quoted by HT. He added that he began coding at age six or seven and got seriously involved in cybersecurity, including Capture the Flag competitions, as early as Class 6.

In his new role at C3iHub, Adhikary will work on identifying weaknesses in websites and applications and assisting organisations in strengthening their cyber defences.