Hacker claims to have sold VCE exam papers to hundreds of students after government website hack

During the current year 12 exam period, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) website experienced a hack. The perpetrator behind the hack claimed to have sold exam papers to hundreds of students in the state, despite the VCAA strongly refuting these claims, stating that there was no evidence of any exams being accessed or leaked.

The hacker also alleged that the VCAA had "dogshit security standards", allowing them to gain access to the internal file servers of the 2026 exams. The alleged hacker sent the exams to students through an email address belonging to the law firm Go Ahead Lawyers, which the firm also denied involvement in, stating that it had found no evidence of unauthorized access to their email systems and suspected a third party may have spoofed their email address.

The VCAA website is currently undergoing maintenance, and the VCAA chief executive, Andrew Smith, assured that the likelihood of exam papers being downloaded from secure printers was "very, very low". The VCAA is working to restore the website as a matter of urgency, and will investigate the root cause of the incident and any necessary security improvements. The VCAA has also advised that the year 12 exams will continue as normal.