Latest cheating technologies need serious examination

Those unforgettable images of large-scale cheating in school and college examinations in Bihar — showing young men standing on ledges outside windows to pass on answers — prove that the state has been rather behind the times when it comes to technological advances in that particular activity.

As the case of the Indian Police Service officer apprehended while cheating at a civil service examination centre in Tamil Nadu proves, there are less obvious and more efficient ways to game the system if you have the means to finance it.

It was doubly ironical, of course, that the alleged cheater happened to be a budding guardian of the law and also ran coaching classes for other civil service aspirants. But then, he would be just the sort to know the best tricks of the trade, so to speak.

Remote phones, buttonhole cameras, tiny Bluetooth devices, smartwatches and calculators that store data and formulae, the cheating industry has more tricks up its sleeves than the old-fashioned scribbled chits.

Not only does the ‘evolution’ of cheating in India need serious forensic and scholarly investigation, invigilators across the board should be given technology-upgrade classes to keep up with the latest methods. In fact, maybe this enterprising if crooked IPS officer needs to be commandeered like an ethical hacker to catch others of his ilk.