No fewer than 20 suspects are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Police Force, in Abuja, for hacking the 2025 Computer-based test examinations conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
The suspects are part of a syndicate believed to have over 100 persons, who specialise in hacking the computer servers of examination bodies like JAMB and the National Examinations Council (NECO).
Security sources disclosed that the suspects have confessed to sabotaging the Computer-Based-Test system in order to discredit JAMB and discourage students from using CBT for future WAEC/NECO examinations.
The source said one of the suspects confessed that the syndicate would install an attacking software on the examination body hardware.
The software in turn would remotely hack JAMB servers at any targeted CBT centre.
The source, however, pleaded that their names be left out since they would soon be charged to court.
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“While the controversy raged, little did the public know that the DSS had been covertly monitoring and investigating this dangerous web of attacks. The investigations led to the arrest of over 20 persons across the country, with arrests still ongoing.
“The strategy of these hackers involved mounting routers within the vicinity of the targeted CBT centres. The routers would in turn override JAMB platforms at the centres, making it easy for the special candidates who paid to get answers to the questions.
“The intrusion of the ghost software by the syndicate distorted the system, making answers provided by candidates during the exam to be at variance with the questions. This eventually led to the recorded mass failure,” said the security source.
The entire hacking process was to influence high scores for special candidates who paid between ₦700, 000 and two million naira, it was gathered.
The source also disclosed that preliminary investigations revealed that several members of the syndicate own private schools and colleges, and make huge sums of money from their special centres.
They fear that fully integrating WAEC/NECO for CBT type of examinations will ruin their illegal business, it was learnt.
The source, however, added that as at yesterday evening, “no case of complicity had been established against the seven JAMB staff who supervised the service providers at the two locations.”