Hacker claims to have sold Victorian exam papers, but exam authority denies any leak

A hacker has claimed to have sold 2026 exam papers to "hundreds of students" across Victoria, but the state body that runs the exams says the claims are false.

On Wednesday evening, a message attributed to someone using the alias "DaggerElite" appeared on the homepage banner of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), which sets and oversees the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), the final-year school certificate. The message came during the exam period in November. The hacker claimed to have downloaded a copy of 2026 exam papers from the VCAA's internal file servers, the central computers where documents are stored. The Guardian reported the claims.

The hacker also claimed to have sent exams to students from an email address belonging to the law firm Go Ahead Lawyers. The firm said it was not involved in the incident and did not access or distribute any exam papers. Its review found no evidence of unauthorised access to its email systems, and it suspects a third party faked, or "spoofed," its sender address.

A VCAA spokesperson described the hacker's claims as "fabricated" and said there was "no evidence at all" that any VCE exams had been accessed or leaked. The authority said the false claims were "designed for financial gain from the exploitation of anxious students." Chief executive Andrew Smith said the likelihood that exam papers could be downloaded from secure printers was "very, very low."

The incident has been reported to Victoria police. On Thursday morning, the VCAA website displayed a notice saying it was "undergoing maintenance."

The Victorian government has said the VCE exams will continue as normal.