Finally, the authorities of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras discovered the signs of hacking of its websites on December 30, 2016, and restored the websites. On the other hand, the identity of the persons who hacked the website is still unknown. Currently, the institute is figuring out the vulnerabilities which led to hacking.
Some of the unknown persons hacked the websites of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. However, there was no effect on the main website of the institute. The websites of six departments, five excellence centres and library were hacked. One of the websites of the institute contained valuable information about the conferences and other related information.
Also read: - 500 Alumni of IIT Madras Participate in Alumni Reunion Day
According to sources, the websites of IIT-M had weak security. Some of the content of these websites had been compromised after the hacking. Bhaskar Ramamurthy, Director of IIT-Madras explained the reason mentioning that the access to the website had been given to numerous people to update content. These people were given a password to access and update the content on the site. There might be a leak of the password which led to hacking.
He further added that the institute had taken various steps to make the sites secure but received complaints from the users that updating content had been taking a lot of time. Hence, the institute withdrew the steps of making the websites secure.
Also read: - Start-Ups Still Major Recruiters at IIT Madras Placements in 2016
As per latest developments, the institute has decided to delink the websites related to cultural and technical fests. Ramamurthy mentioned that there would be separate websites for technical and cultural fests. On the other hand, the site which contains the details of conferences and other announcements will not have any details of IIT-Madras.