In what appears to be a coordinated cyberattack, hackers targeted the Odisha Higher Education Department's official Instagram account, as well as Ravenshaw University's website.
The problem arose on Sunday night, July 27, when students attempting to access Ravenshaw University's website were faced with betting advertisements, prompting them to report the incident on social media.
The attack occurs amid the critical undergraduate and postgraduate entrance period, causing worry among management and applicants, OdishaTV reports.
As of Sunday night, clicking on the university's domain from a desktop browser results in either a blank page or the failure to load any institutional material. Users on mobile devices are being led to a gambling website linked to a betting programme that appears to be of foreign Southeast Asian origin.
Ravenshaw's website has supposedly been hacked several times before. A similar cyberattack occurred almost two years ago.
At the time, cybersecurity professionals raised the issue and advised university administrators to upgrade their digital security architecture. However, this recent breach indicates that such warnings went unheeded.
Meanwhile, there were explicit videos and advertisements for online betting platforms posted from the official Instagram account of the state's Higher Education Department, allegedly without the administrators' knowledge or consent.
The account, which was formerly used to disseminate academic circulars, results, and policy updates, has now become a forum for indecent and false content.
The hacker's identity is unknown, and the motivation for the attack is still not clear.
