On Sunday, the official website of Kirori Mal College was hacked.
Hacking of college websites has now become a pan-university phenomenon. Almost on a monthly basis, instances of college websites being hacked are heard of. The recent hack of the UPSC Website saw the set-up of a new benchmark in the field of unethical-hacking. It seems as if the hackers are on a get-set-hack spree, smiting college-after college. This time, they made the official website of Kirori Mal College, (KMC), their victim.
It was observed on Sunday, September 30, 2018, by some college students that a clumsy notice had been uploaded in the News&Information section of the website. The notice, which seemed highly unprofessional in its language, accused the college student fraternity of accepting bribes during the elections, and that this shall have humongous long term implications. It requested the student fraternity to rise up against corruption in the elections and accused other political parties in the college student union frame of offering “Movie Tickets” in exchange for votes. The notice implored the students to rise up against this activity and proclaim power over their union.
Prima facie, it seems that this has happened in connection to the recent political scenario in the college, where the students in the college were actually offered Free Movie Tickets to shows at Amba Cinema for the movie “STRI”, and the same front emerged victorious in the College Student Union Elections.
According to Shivam, a student from KMC, who wants his course and other relevant details to reamin hidden- “This is obviously something that involves high skill and knowledge pertaining to computers. We had a candidate during the college student union elections who is from the Political Science Department, and has developed the college application as well. This candidate lost the elections to the post of the college president. Hence, it is almost sure that it is him who has done this.”
Although this gives a particular direction to the story, there are also counter-allegations from the supporters of the particular candidate. According to Kuldeep, another student from KMC, “All of this has been done to tarnish the image of our candidate. It is something that has been thought all the way through with profound attention to detail. They know that our candidate shall be the primary suspect, because of his computer based skills. Hence, this is being done post elections to highlight the false statement. Our candidate is a true Kirorian, he would never engage in anything so unethical and disproportionate to his character.”
This incident, apparently, has led to bifurcation of the college fraternity into two fronts. While the administrative investigation is under process, the security layering of the website has been scrutinised, all the loop holes removed and security tightened up to prevent any such incident in the future.
Feature Image Credits – KMC students
Aashish Jain