DNA Special: Competitive exams in India hacked by Russian hackers

Now, we will tell you about a new conspiracy by Russian hackers to cheat in JEE, GMAT, SSC and Army online examinations in India. This time, a gang of copycats contacted Russian hackers who took remote access to the laptops of the students who took the online exam and fed the correct answers to all the questions from there. There have been many such cases in the last three years when many corrupt students have passed these huge examinations like this by paying lakhs of rupees, although they were not the rightful owner of it. This is a betrayal to all those hardworking and honest students of India and their families who do not take the path of dishonesty to pass. That's why today we will warn you from this deception as well.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested 6 people during raids in different states of the country, who used to hack competitive exams like JEE and GMAT online to not only pass students but also rank them between 1 to 100.

The JEE exam is for admission to engineering colleges and GMAT is the Graduate Management Admission Test, by passing which students can take admission in reputed business schools in India and other countries. According to the police, the six people who have been arrested used to cheat in these examinations with the help of Russian hackers. And this whole game is so dangerous that it will blow your mind.

The Russian Hackers had made software for this gang to take the remote access of any computer. Usually, when this happens, the department and institution conducting the examination get to know about it. But in this case, the department and institution conducting the examination did not even know about it. That is because Russian Hackers had developed such software, which kept its information secret during remote access of any laptop. The student who had the exam used to sit only with his laptop and computer open and a person sitting far away used to take control of his laptop and write answers to all the questions online. And in return, up to Rs 3 lakh was taken from such corrupt students.

With the help of Russian hackers, this gang had cleared 18 students in GMAT and 500 students in online exams of the Indian Army, Navy and SSC in the last three years. Think how dangerous it is that such people are able to enter the army and the system, who are not really qualified. The thing that surprises the most, in this case, is that the mastermind of this entire gang is a person named Raj Teotia, who has not even completed graduation.

This 33-year-old man had opened computer labs in many big cities including Agra, Mumbai and Delhi, where he used to bring such people, who used to sit there and take exams for the students. They are also called solvers. Apart from this, many cases are registered against the accused in Haryana. Haryana Police has also announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh on him. Right now, the police have recovered 15 laptops and 9 mobile phones from this gang and it has also been learned that this accused was in contact with Russian hackers for many years. This meeting with these hackers was arranged by his Russian girlfriend, whom he met in Goa in 2017.

After this, the accused also went to Russia once in 2018. And in the year 2020, when India was under lockdown, two Russian hackers were staying in India with him.

You must be thinking about how the students who took the exam come in contact with this gang. So there were two ways in which the first method is quite shocking. Coaching centres of many cities, where children pay lakhs of rupees to prepare for competitive exams, were involved with the gang. These coaching centres used to collect information about such children, who can spend lakhs of rupees to pass. Another way, these people used to contact the students through the Dark Web.

This news is a cruel joke with the students across the country who work hard to clear the examinations, those who do not take the path of dishonesty to pass.

Last year, a survey was conducted in India, in which 66 percent of students admitted that they copy to pass the exam. Whereas many students had said that they can also pay money for copying or for leaking the question paper. In the year 2018, when the Yogi government of Uttar Pradesh had tightened the 10th and 12th class board examinations of UP, 10 lakh students did not take the exam.

There was a time when students tried to pass examinations by cheating. When the strictness in competitive exams increased and it became difficult to cheat, the question papers started leaking even before the exam. According to a report, question papers of more than 70 examinations were leaked in India in five years between 2007 and 2012, after which many examinations had to be cancelled.

To prevent leakage of question paper, when surveillance and strictness increased in government departments, students resorted to technology and Bluetooth slippers arrived. And now their place has also been taken by hackers, who have made fun of the whole system of Online Competitive Exams.