Test run on CAT site triggers rumours of results leak; students allege the website was hacked; IIM-L says it was testing it with dummy data.
Was the official website — www.catiim.com — where the results of CAT-2010 are to be uploaded, hacked? Or was it just a test run being carried out by the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, (IIM-L) which conducted CAT-2010?
Some students, who have taken CAT-2010, claimed that they had seen their results on the website on Monday, much before January 12, the official date for announcement of results.
While rumours of CAT-2010 results being leaked were making the rounds since Monday morning, the IIM-L team which is handling the website said it was just testing the portal.
Be that as it may, news of the official website being hacked surprised aspirants and also caused many to panic.
As the rumour spread, the IIMs, and the online testing company, the US-based Prometric Service Limited, which has conducted the test for the IIMs, were flooded with queries about data leakage and hacking of the website.
One student said on condition of anonymity that they had seen some results when they checked the website on Monday morning, but they were the results of CAT-2009.
"We heard about some students learning of their CAT results on Monday, but when we logged on ourselves, we got to see the 2009 results," the student said. "Later, we found out that this might have happened because of irrelevant data being uploaded to test the website."
The IIM-Lucknow team, which is handling the website, said the portal was not hacked. Some tests were being conducted in preparation for January 12, when the final results would be uploaded, the team clarified.
Prof Himanshu Rai of IIM-Lucknow, who is in charge of CAT-2010, said the official results website does not possess any information that can lead to a leakage of the results.
"The official website — www.catiim.in — is down as we are testing it with data in preparation for uploading of the results on January 12," Rai said. "It has not been hacked."
He added that the results will be out as scheduled but till then the website might occasionally go off the internet because of test runs with dummy data.
When DNA checked the official website, it was shown as 'under construction'.
"The website hosting the results was developed, and is maintained, by a third-party vendor hired by the Indian Institutes of Management," said Soumitra Ray, managing director of Prometric India.
"Because we did not develop it, and do not manage it, we are not able to provide further information about the issues that affected the website.
"Prometric takes extensive security measures to protect its systems. The systems used to develop and deliver exam content are managed by Prometric and meet the highest security standards. The score-reporting system is not developed by or managed by Prometric."
This year close to 2.41 lakh students have taken the online test held for selection of candidates for admission to the IIMs and nearly 80 other B-schools which admit students on the basis of their CAT scores.
(With inputs from Niyati Rana)
Correction, January 10, 2010: The response of Prometric India's managing director has been added to the report.
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