By Deborah Nnamdi
The Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Police Force have arrested at least 20 individuals in connection with the hacking of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), a computer-based test conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
According to AIT, the suspects are part of a larger syndicate believed to consist of over 100 members who specialize in hacking the computer systems of examination bodies such as JAMB and the Nationalà by Examinations Council (NECO).
Security sources revealed that the arrested suspects have confessed to deliberately sabotaging the CBT system. Their objective, reportedly, was to discredit JAMB and deter students from embracing computer-based testing in future exams conducted by NECO and the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
“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 center,” the source quoted one of the suspects as confessing.
The entire hacking process was to influence high scores for special candidates who paid between N700,000 and N2 million.
The report further added that preliminary investigations revealed that several members of the syndicate own private schools and colleges and make huge sums of money from their special centers..
