Delhi: Claims of a data breach and privacy violation affecting lakhs of JEE (Advanced) aspirants are "misleading and factually incorrect", the IIT-Roorkee said on Friday, asserting that no sensitive information was compromised or mass-extracted following a temporary cloud-storage misconfiguration.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, which conducted the exam this year, said the information circulating on social media "does not accurately reflect what happened" and alleged an attempt to spread misinformation.
The JEE (Advanced) is the gateway for admission to undergraduate programmes in the IITs and several other premier engineering institutions across the country.
The Ministry of Education also dismissed reports of a data breach and privacy violations involving JEE (Advanced) candidates as "misleading and factually incorrect".
"There have been several misleading and factually incorrect reports regarding data breach and privacy violations with respect to students who took JEE (Advanced) examination," the ministry said in a post on X.
"As per the clarification issued by @iitroorkee the Ministry reiterates that no sensitive information was compromised, and the examination outcomes, marks, and candidate information remain completely secure, intact, and safe," it added.
"Claims of a data breach and privacy violation affecting lakhs 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 at spreading misinformation, which is far from the truth," the IIT-Roorkee said in a series of posts on X.
According to the institute, certain technical interventions were undertaken on an expedited basis on June 2 to assist candidates facing difficulties in accessing admit-card data and to ensure the smooth functioning of the registration process.
It further said these interventions resulted in a "minimal, temporary misconfiguration" in a cloud-storage component, which was identified and reported by ethical hacker Rylen Anil.
