In yet another embarrassment to the Utkal University authorities, the university’s e-admission website www.eadmission.utkaluniversity.ac.in was hacked again on Tuesday. This was the second time that the website of the State’s premier educational institution was hacked just in the span of a week.
A Dubai-based hacker named ‘Ahmad Chanda’ claimed credits for the incident in a Facebook post. Meanwhile, the university authorities decided to go for offline admission this year.
At an emergency meeting called by the university’s PG Council, the authorities unanimously decided in favour of offline admission this year following the hacking.
“We have decided to conduct offline admission this year. A student can procure the form from the various departments of the university available from today. A demand draft and a photograph would be sufficient to submit the filled up form required to appear for entrance examination. Following submission of the form, admit card will be issued instantly. The last date for accepting applications form has been extended to June 7 from May 14,” said PG Council Chairman Ranjan Kumar Bal.
Bal, however, said the hacker was unable to break into the website, the data of which are intact. “We will be conducting a security audit. Someone claimed on Facebook that he has hacked the website. We are yet to ascertain the veracity of the claim,” Bal added.
He said as many as 13, 355 students had submitted their applications online for admission into various postgraduate courses. The applicants would be intimated through e-mail, SMS about the change in the admission process.
Meanwhile, the university authorities also decided to conduct the entrance examinations between June 19 and 28.
Following the hacking, the authorities filed a complaint at the Cyber Cell of the Crime Branch. Notably, on May 3, the official website was hacked by a suspected Pakistani group. The matter is being probed by the Crime Branch.