Rahul Gandhi demands inquiry in NEET data breach
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday wrote to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and demanded an enquiry into the alleged massive data breach of candidates, who appeared for National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) exam this year.
In his letter to CBSE chairman Anita Karwal, the Congress president wrote ‘'it is alleged that data of candidates who appeared for NEET this year, is available on certain websites for a price and has leaked data of over 2,00,000 students. I strongly urge you to order an inquiry'.
Gandhi, in his letter, also requested the CBSE chairman for additional safeguards to prevent the recurrence of such data breaches.
The phone numbers, email IDs and addresses of students who took the NEET exam this year were being made available by a website through a payment of up to Rs 2 lakh. The website was later taken down after the information on data breach was reported on some news portals.
A report in a website has claimed that the data of NEET candidates from at least up to 15 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka were being made available for payment.
The report however clarifies that the website did not offer the entire NEET database, as over 13 lakh candidates had appeared for the examination, while the data of 2.4 lakh students was available for purchase.
Meanwhile Union Minister Satyapal Singh has denied allegations of data breach and has claimed that the entire NEET data is available with the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
