The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Ease with which results were leaked baffling

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Ease with which results were leaked baffling

Staff Reporter

Officials handling the data were not subject to security procedures

Officials believe the incident occurred on Sunday
The results were ready on May 8

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The apparent ease with which an upper division clerk of the Pareeksha Bhavan was able to allegedly download the results of the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination and take them out of the office premises has raised questions about the manner in which the data were handled prior to the publication of the results on Tuesday.

Pareeksha Bhavan officials, who spoke to The Hindu, said they suspected that Shine Raj, the clerk who was the zonal manager for schools in Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha and Kollam districts, could have downloaded the results on to his pen drive some time on Sunday.

That was when the computer files containing the results were unlocked by the systems manager at the Pareeksha Bhavan to facilitate the preparation of the booklets to be distributed during the announcement of the results by the Education Minister.

Networked computers

From April 3, the Bhavan used nearly 60 networked computers to enter and compile the data pertaining to the SSLC results.

In the first week of May, the data were accessed by officials of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to process the results.

“During all these procedures, we believe there was no leakage of data. The results were actually ready on May 8,” a Pareeksha Bhavan official said here.

“The entire State was divided into four zones. We chose as zonal managers those employees who we thought were honest officials. In any system, we have to trust at least a handful of people to maintain secrecy.”

However, the officials were at a loss to explain why computers containing such sensitive data had the facility to operate removable data-storage devices and why officials handling the data were not subject to security procedures while entering or exiting the cabins where the computers were placed.

It is not clear now if there had been any loss of data of the other three zones and if more officials were involved.

Youth arrested

Staff Reporter writes from Kollam:

Vipin Sadanandan, 23, a mechanical engineer, has been arrested in connection with the leak of this year’s Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination results.

The Karunagapally police said here on Tuesday that he had been selling the results at his house near Karunagapally. He had put up a signboard in front of the house that read “SSLC results obtained here,” the police said. For individuals, the results were sold at Rs. 10 and for tutorials, Rs. 1,000. Vipin said he had earned Rs. 7,000 from the sale, the police said.

The “sale” led to the leaking of the results of the Kuzhithura Fisheries School, near Karunagapally, and the Government Girls’ High School, Karunagapally, by Monday.

The police said they were tipped off of the sale on Tuesday morning and Vipin was arrested by 9 a.m. The signboard and the computer in which he stored the results had been seized, they added.

The Circle Inspector, Karunagapally, who arrested Vipin, said the accused had obtained the results on a pen drive from Shine Raj, a close relative of his employed at the Pareeksha Bhavan.

Vipin was produced before a magistrate court at Karunagapally and remanded in police custody.

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