IIT Kanpur hires cybersecurity researcher Nisarga Adhikary after CBSE-OSM row

Nisarga Adhikary, the 19-year-old cybersecurity enthusiast who flagged security vulnerabilities in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) on-screen marking portal, has been appointed as an Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and threat intelligence engineer at IIT Kanpur’s technology innovation hub, C3iHub.

IIT Kanpur recruitment

Confirming the development, IIT Kanpur director Manindra Agrawal said he reached out to Adhikary after reading a blog post published on May 22 detailing flaws in the portal.

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“Nisarga Adhikary has been appointed as an engineer in our cybersecurity team. A few years ago, we had similarly recruited a couple of young engineers for the same team. I am not sure whether he is the youngest recruit at IIT Kanpur, but he is certainly among the youngest engineers to have been hired by the institute,” said Agrawal as quoted by the Hindustan Times.

What Adhikary said

According to the report, officials said that Adhikary, who cleared his Class 12 examinations this year, has been appointed on a contractual basis under the institute’s cybersecurity team. His role will involve analysing publicly available information and identifying vulnerabilities in websites and applications.

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“I am excited about this opportunity because it is the first time I will be working in a security-focused role. In my earlier jobs, I primarily worked as a software engineer, while cybersecurity was more of a hobby,” Adhikary said.

Early interest in cybersecurity

Elaborating further, Adhikary said his interest in coding began at a young age and later developed into a focus on cybersecurity.

“I started coding when I was six or seven years old, but I became seriously involved in cybersecurity and began participating in Capture the Flag (CTF) and other cybersecurity competitions when I was in Class 6,” he said.

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Adhikary and IIT Kanpur officials declined to disclose his remuneration, though he said it was below his expectations.

“The salary is decent, but I was expecting a bit more. I’m used to working on projects and with companies based in the US, and I do miss the financial advantage that comes with earning in dollars because of the USD-INR conversion,” he said.