Victorian exam authority's website hacked, claims of leaked papers dismissed as fabricated

The website of Victoria's exam authority, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), has been hacked during the state's Year 12 exam period. The hacker claimed to have sold exam papers to hundreds of students. The authority says there is no evidence any papers leaked and that the claims are fabricated.

On Wednesday evening, a message attributed to someone using the alias “DaggerElite” appeared on the VCAA homepage banner. It claimed exam papers had been sold to “hundreds of students” across the state. The hacker further alleged that the authority's security standards were poor, allowing them to learn the site's internals and download a copy of the 2026 exam papers from its internal file servers.

A spokesperson for the VCAA strongly refuted the hacker's claims. They said the claims were “fabricated” and there was “no evidence at all” that any VCE exams had been accessed or leaked.

The spokesperson said, “These are false claims designed for financial gain from the exploitation of anxious students.” They added, “For obvious reasons, the VCAA does not reveal or comment on specific security process used to protect the integrity of VCE exams.”

The hacker also claimed to have sent the exams to students using an email address belonging to the law firm Go Ahead Lawyers, whose email security system they said they had hacked. A spokesperson for the firm said it was “not involved in the reported hacking incident involving the VCAA website” and it “did not access or distribute any exam papers”.

The spokesperson said, “Our review to date has found no evidence of unauthorised access to our email systems.” They added, “We suspect a third party may have spoofed our email address to make messages appear to come from our firm. Go Ahead Lawyers did not send or authorise those messages.”

The incident has been reported to Victoria police. On Thursday morning, the VCAA website said it was “undergoing maintenance”. It read, “We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience.”

VCAA chief executive Andrew Smith told ABC Radio Melbourne that it was working to restore the website as a “matter of urgency”. He said the likelihood exam papers could be downloaded from secure printers was “very, very low”.

Smith said, “Once we’ve completed our investigation, we will go back, look at the root cause of what might have happened, and any changes we need to increase the security around our corporate website will certainly be made.”

A spokesperson for the Victorian government said Year 12 exams were “stressful enough without someone trying to vandalise the system”. They said, “The VCAA has advised no exams have been accessed or leaked and that claims made in relation to VCE exams being accessed are fabricated.” They added, “The VCAA immediately removed its website from public access and commenced an investigation into the claims, as is appropriate. The VCE exams will continue as normal.”

Online, students reacted in mixed ways. One wrote, “The fact that people are hacking a GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY just goes to show the ridiculous amounts of stress and pressure they put on us.” Another joked, “Yo who got the physics paper.”

The hack comes after a disruptive period for the VCAA. In 2024, the body unintentionally published 56 of the 116 test papers before they were sat due to a “publishing error”, including English. The questions — either identical or very similar to those in the final exams — were contained in VCAA sample cover pages, which contained hidden text in seemingly blank sections, and were available online for weeks before they were pulled. Then chief executive Kylie White resigned in the fallout, and the board was sacked in 2025. Multiple errors were also found in the 2023 and 2022 maths exams, prompting a comprehensive review of the vetting and proofing process for papers.

The VCE exam period commenced on 5 October and will continue to run until 18 November. There are 24 exams remaining across the final days, including physics, geography and politics.