At about 6pm on Wednesday, a profanity-laced message appeared on the homepage of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, claiming that VCE exams had been sold to hundreds of students.
The unauthorized notice was authored by an individual using the alias “DaggerElite,” who asserted they had breached the security systems of both the authority and its external printing providers to download this year’s test papers, The Age reported. The messaging further claimed that the compromised papers were distributed to participants via an email address belonging to a law firm.
In an official statement, the authority confirmed that its website was the subject of vandalism on Wednesday night. However, initial investigative findings showed no indication that sensitive data or examination papers had been accessed, maintaining that VCE assessments would continue as scheduled.
“There is no indication that exam papers from today or previous weeks have been accessed,” the authority said. The incident has been formally referred to Victoria Police for investigation, while the homepage remained blank and displayed a maintenance notice for several hours.
GoAhead lawyers stated on Wednesday evening that they suspected their email system had been spoofed by a third party, explaining the creation of a message with a forged sender address.
“Our checks so far have found no record of the reported emails in our systems, and we cannot confirm that they were sent from a GoAhead Lawyers account,” said Sukhwinder Singh, principal lawyer at the firm, adding that his team had reported the suspected spoofing and would assist with inquiries.
The disruption caused immediate concern among families finishing the final weeks of secondary schooling. David Charlesworth, a parent of a final-year student, said the security breach alone damaged confidence in the assessment body regardless of whether the hacker’s claims proved true.
“They’ve been through this before,” Charlesworth told The Age regarding the authority’s history. “They can do a better job.”
The cyber incident arrives two years after a major administrative failure during the 2024 exam period, which prompted a government review after the authority unintentionally published 56 test papers online. That bungle led to the resignation of then-chief executive Kylie White, followed by the sacking of the board in 2025, alongside earlier examination errors recorded in 2022 and 2023.
Opposition education spokesperson Brad Roswell sought an official briefing from the Department of Education and the assessment authority following Wednesday’s breach.
The 2026 VCE examination period has one week remaining, with language exams scheduled to conclude on November 18. Student results are scheduled for release on December 10.
