A website linked to Victoria’s upcoming VCE exams was hacked after claims that leaked test papers had been illegally sold to “hundreds” of students.
A message appeared on the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) website on Wednesday.
In the post, the hacker mocked the authority’s “dog***t security standards”, claiming they had made it possible to breach the site.
The hacker, who identified themselves only as “DaggerElite”, also claimed that leaked exams sold online could be traced back to individual buyers.
The message was later removed, although the VCAA website remained offline on Wednesday night.
The VCAA website is used by students to access their VCE results, which are scheduled to be released at 7am on December 10.
This year’s VCE exams for senior high school students were held between October 29 and November 18.
The hacker opened the message by thanking students who had allegedly “bought” exam papers before sitting their tests.
A hacker posted this message on the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s website on Wednesday
“However, I’m here to say a big thank you to a much cooler group of people – those who purchased an Official VCA 2026 Exam from me ahead of the Exam day this year,” they wrote.
“Thanks to the support of these awesome hundreds of students statewide, we will hopefully be able to prepare the exam pages to be sent out even earlier than we have been able to this year, so you can study the paper you will sit in 2027 well in advance!”
The post then set out details of the alleged operation.
“A massive thank you also goes to VCAA and their dog***t security standards on their website, allowing me to map out this s***show site and learn all about its internals,” the hacker wrote.
“Another thank you to their select External Printing Providers for their s*** security policies allowing me to log-in to their systems and download a copy of the 2026 Exam papers from their internal file servers, LMFAO!
“And finally thank you to GoAhead Lawyers for fing up email security on their website, therefore allowing me to send everyone who purchased an exam this year an anonymous email under their name.
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“The success of this campaign could not have been possible without all their help together.”
DaggerElite claimed to know the identity of everyone who had purchased the alleged exam papers and warned them not to distribute the material.
“Before anyone seeing this decides to go ask people to share the papers for the next few exams, I would like to remind you that those holding a paper are very well aware that each sent copy is individualised with an identifiable signature embedded in it, and it’s in their best interests to keep their papers to themselves, lest it be found out who purchased a 2026 VCAA Exam paper,” they wrote.
“This is DaggerElite, and it has been an absolute pleasure working with all of you this year.”
Year 12 students told the Daily Mail they were stunned by the claims, particularly after a similar incident in 2024 in which exam material was leaked.
Raphael, an 18-year-old Melbourne student sitting specialist mathematics, physics and geography exams this week, said the latest incident was difficult to understand.
“I don’t understand how VCAA and its external providers can mess up this badly after the debacle in 2024. It’s pretty impressive,” he said.
Annabelle, 16, who has a philosophy exam on Friday, criticised the hacker’s apparent self-importance.
“What an ego, they think they’re going to have a movie made about them,” she said.
After the 2024 incident, when answers were accidentally exposed on exam cover sheets, then-Education Minister Ben Carroll ordered a “root and branch review”.
GoAhead Lawyers, an immigration firm, said it had no involvement in Wednesday’s breach.
“We do not have anything to do with this and we don’t know why our name was used,” a spokesperson said.
“We don’t even deal in a sector related to VCAA or school students.”
The Daily Mail has contacted the VCAA and Education Victoria for comment.