Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has alleged a serious data breach involving the answer booklets of 20 lakh Class 12 students from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), claiming that their privacy has been compromised. He criticized the government's handling of the evaluation process, pointing out that the leaked booklets displayed signs of poor quality scans, suggesting they were scanned with mobile phones instead of proper equipment. Ramesh raised questions about the scanning methods used by COEMPT, the contracted service provider, after changes were made to the technical requirements of the request for proposals (RFP). In response to the controversy, the CBSE has acknowledged the vulnerabilities in its On-Screen Marking (OSM) evaluation system and has deployed cybersecurity experts from government agencies and IITs to fortify the platform. The board has stated that it is actively working to address the identified vulnerabilities and appreciates the efforts of ethical hackers who reported the issues.