The Karnataka police recently uncovered a major cybercrime case involving the hacking of the Unified University and College Management System (UUCMS) portal of Bengaluru North University (BNU) in Kolar. The gang responsible had tampered with the marks of over 60 failed students in exchange for money, exploiting vulnerabilities in the university’s system.
The Kolar District Cyber Crime & Narcotics Control Police Station (CEN) arrested three individuals in connection with the case: Girish, Sandesh, and Surya. Girish and Sandesh are trustees of local colleges, MNG Pre-University College and Smart Degree College, while Surya is a student at one of these institutions. The arrests followed a complaint filed by the university’s registrar, and the police are continuing their investigation, suspecting more individuals may be involved in the scam. The accused’s bank accounts have also been frozen.
The Bengaluru North University operates the UUCMS portal, which is a centralized platform under Karnataka’s Higher Education Department. This system manages key academic processes such as admissions, examinations, degree awards, and student attendance across higher education institutions. The portal’s integrity was compromised when the hackers misused login credentials belonging to Thippeswamy, the university’s registrar, to manipulate the marks of failing students.
According to reports from The Hindu, the gang charged students between ₹15,000 to ₹20,000 to alter their exam results. The fraudulent activity was discovered when one of the gang members was caught collecting money from a student in Vijayapura, Bengaluru Rural district. During interrogation, the suspect admitted to the crime, leading to the uncovering of the larger operation.
Further investigation revealed that the fraudsters had accessed the details of students who had failed exams across various colleges affiliated with BNU by resetting passwords in the UUCMS portal. They contacted these students, offering to alter their results in exchange for payments made via UPI transfers and cash.
Niranjana, Chancellor of Bengaluru North University, stated that the university had requested a detailed report from the police regarding the students who had benefited from the tampered marks. “Once we receive the police report, we will withhold the degrees of these students,” she said.
MC Sudhakar, Karnataka’s Minister of Higher Education, commented on the incident, saying, “The government has taken serious note of the portal hacking. A probe will be ordered to investigate this case, and appropriate measures will be taken to protect the portal and safeguard student data.”
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