The hackers also mounted routers near CBT centres, overriding JAMB’s system to assist “special candidates” who paid up to N2 million for high scores.
The Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Police have arrested 20 suspects in Abuja over the hacking of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by JAMB.
Security sources told AIT.Live that the suspects belong to a syndicate of over 100 members targeting CBT systems of JAMB and NECO.
One suspect reportedly confessed that “the syndicate would install an attacking software on the examination body hardware,” which remotely hacked JAMB servers. The hackers also mounted routers near CBT centres, overriding JAMB’s system to assist “special candidates” who paid up to N2 million for high scores.
“The intrusion of the ghost software… distorted the system,” causing mass failure, the source added. Many suspects own private schools and fear that CBT adoption by WAEC and NECO would threaten their illegal operations.
As of Friday evening, “no case of complicity had been established against the seven JAMB staff,” the source stated.