Who is Nisarga Adhikary? Teen who exposed the CBSE OSM system lands IIT-Kanpur role

Nisarga Adhikary, a 19-year-old cybersecurity researcher, has joined IIT Kanpur’s cybersecurity innovation hub, C3iHub, as an OSINT and Threat Intelligence Engineer. His appointment follows his exposure of security vulnerabilities in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) portal, which could have risked sensitive student and school data if exploited. Adhikary’s expertise in identifying flaws in digital systems will now focus on analyzing publicly available information and helping organizations patch security weaknesses. His role at C3iHub is contractual, with IIT Kanpur Director Professor Manindra Agrawal praising his technical capabilities and potential. Before this, Adhikary interned at New Delhi Space Society as a Web Developer and later worked as a Founding Engineer at Skann. He also held software engineering roles at Cypherock and Wavelength. His early interest in technology began at age six, with a serious focus on cybersecurity starting in Class 6 through competitions like Capture the Flag (CTF). While he acknowledged the salary is lower than expected, Adhikary expressed excitement about the security-focused work, noting prior roles were primarily in software engineering. He has no plans to pursue further studies, instead aiming to build startups and tech products. Adhikary’s findings on the CBSE OSM portal highlighted critical gaps in educational technology security, emphasizing the need for regular assessments to protect sensitive data. His appointment marks a significant shift from student research to professional cybersecurity contributions.