By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
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 specialize 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 quoted one suspect as confessing 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 also listed suspects from Lagos; Edo, Anambra, Kano, Delta, among other states.
He, however, pleaded that their names be left out since, according to him, they would soon be charged to court.
According to the source, “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,” stated the security source.
The entire hacking process was to influence high scores for special candidates who paid between N700, 000 and two million Naira, he added.
He 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 feared that fully integrating WAEC/NECO for CBT type of examinations will ruin their illegal business, he stressed.
The source however added that, as at Friday evening, “no case of complicity had been established against the seven JAMB staff who supervised the Service Providers at the two locations.”
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