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Bhubaneswar, May 10: An attempt was made to hack the e-admission website of Utkal University Monday. This comes days after the university’s website had been hacked by miscreants May 3. University officials said a hacker tried to sneak into the e-admission website at 3:39pm. However, the service provider noticed something suspicious and blocked the website.
“The hacker probably tried to attack the e-admission website at 3:39pm Monday. However, the service provider noted the ill-intention and blocked the website. So far, 13,355 students have done their registrations on the e-admission website and all the data is safe,” PG council chairman Ranjan Kumar Bal told Orissa POST.
“Earlier, we had set May 14 as the deadline for offline registrations, but after the incident we have extended the date till June 7. The entrance examination dates have also been postponed. The examination was supposed to be conducted from May 16 to 24, but now it will commence June 19 and conclude June 28. Till May 19 the offline forms will be available here from 10am to 5pm. From May 20 to June 7 the forms will be available from 11am to 2pm,” he said.
On being asked on which server was the website hosted, Bal said the website was hosted on a private server and the contract was provided to a private server after the firm won the tender bid.
“We have lodged a complaint with cyber police in this regard. And as of now we have blocked the e-admission website,” he added.
Sources said the private server providers charge very less to host a website. Reacting to the development, the applicants expressed their displeasure saying they have to wait for one more month to appear for the entrance examination.
Meanwhile, the Crime Branch officials said they are investigating the matter. Earlier, Special DG Crime Branch Bijay Kumar Sharma had told this newspaper that Utkal University had hosted its website on a private server, but technically the university should have hosted its website on a government server like NIC.
The crime branch officials had earlier said the hacking of Utkal University website May 3 was done through a server located in Germany.
