The Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Police Force have arrested no fewer than 20 suspects in connection with the hacking of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) computer-based test (CBT).

The 2025 UTME was conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB.

AIT reports that the suspects are part of a syndicate believed to have over 100 persons who specialise in hacking of the computer servers of examination bodies like JAMB and the National Examinations Council, NECO.

According to the report, security sources confirmed that the suspects have confessed to sabotaging the CBT system in order to discredit JAMB and discourage students from using CBT for future examinations to be 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 centre,” the source quoted one of the suspect 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 centres.