ROORKEE: In what is being alleged to be a significant data privacy lapse, personal information of more than 30,000 students and alumni of IIT-Roorkee has been exposed on a public website for years, prompting the institute to launch an internal inquiry. The data, believed to have been electronically siphoned from the institute’s academic affairs department records, was accessible to all, raising concerns over internal cyber safeguards at one of the country’s premier engineering institutes.The leaked database contains mobile numbers of students and their parents, caste category, financial background, email addresses, and year of admission and graduation. By entering a student’s enrolment number on the site, one could view their personal details, including photographs. “Since the information on the website can be retrieved only through an enrolment number, it means the data has either been leaked or stolen from the academic affairs section. This is clearly a case of cyber security and personal privacy breach,” said a professor on condition of anonymity. When TOI alerted the institute about the breach, it ordered an inquiry. “We have forwarded the matter to dean academic affairs and dean of student welfare for necessary action,” said UP Singh, deputy director of IIT-R.The website is believed to have been running for about 10 years. Although it had not uploaded data for the current year, older records were reportedly being updated. “It is extremely serious that the website operator is sharing vital personal information of institute’s students from an unknown place, and for unknown purposes. Unfortunately, the institute is not yet aware of it,” said a student.Officials did not divulge the names of the students and alumni affected. The institute has a rich history of producing distinguished engineers, scientists and industry leaders. Established in 1847 as the Thomason College of Civil Engineering, IIT-Roorkee is Asia’s oldest technical institution. It became the University of Roorkee in 1949 and was upgraded to an IIT in 2001.