The re-evaluation and verification portal of the Central Board of Secondary Education came under extraordinary strain after registering nearly 1.5 million hits within just two minutes of going live, alongside more than 100,000 attempts of unauthorised access, in what the Board has described as coordinated cyber threats aimed at disrupting services.
Officials said the surge coincided with malicious attempts, including a denial-of-service pattern that flooded the system with traffic while thousands of students attempted to access the platform simultaneously. The Board said the activity was driven by “malicious actors” seeking to destabilise the portal at a critical time for Class XII students applying for marks verification and re-evaluation.
Despite the disruption, CBSE maintained that the system remained operational throughout the day. It reported that more than 8,000 users were able to access the portal concurrently, while over 16,000 students successfully submitted their applications by mid-afternoon.
Overwhelming demands meet cyber threats
The volume of traffic was not entirely unexpected given the scale of demand. Over 98,000 Class XII students had already requested scanned copies of their answer sheets, amounting to more than 4 lakh document views, following ongoing concerns linked to the On-Screen Marking System controversy.
The portal itself had been delayed twice, originally scheduled for May 29, then shifted to June 1, and finally launched on June 2 after technical concerns were cited by officials. The postponement had already triggered anxiety among students and parents, particularly after earlier reports of glitches during answer-sheet access earlier this month.
CBSE has consistently stated that the portal was designed to ensure a transparent and seamless mechanism for students seeking verification of marks and re-evaluation of answer books.
Students report widespread login failures
As soon as the portal went live, students across the country began reporting persistent technical issues. Complaints ranged from login failures and captcha errors to repeated messages such as “verification failed” and “401 authentication error”. Many said they were unable to proceed beyond the initial login stage despite repeated attempts starting early morning hours.
Some users also took to social media to highlight their difficulties, tagging senior government officials and questioning the reliability of the system during a crucial academic process. Others reported waiting for hours without successful access, even after repeated retries.
Experts deployed to strengthen security
In response to earlier concerns surrounding the On-Screen Marking System, the Ministry of Education had already brought in technical experts from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur to assist CBSE in identifying vulnerabilities and strengthening the re-evaluation framework.
Additionally, cybersecurity specialists from multiple government agencies have been deployed to reinforce the system’s security architecture. CBSE also confirmed that the platform supporting its OnMark operations has been undergoing continuous upgrades, including extended session time limits to improve user experience.
A system under strain
While CBSE insists the portal remains stable and functional, the simultaneous pressure of nationwide demand and sustained cyber activity has exposed the fragility of large-scale digital examination infrastructure. The Board now finds itself balancing two parallel challenges: ensuring uninterrupted access for lakhs of students while defending against sustained digital disruptions.
For students awaiting clarity on their academic results, the experience has been marked less by transparency and more by technical uncertainty, as the system continues to operate under unusually heavy strain.
