VCAA Website Hacked During Exams: What Victorian Students Need to Know
Victoria's exam authority says nothing suggests exam papers were accessed after its website was hacked during the exam period.
Victoria's exam authority says nothing suggests exam papers were accessed after its website was hacked during the exam period. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) has started a forensic investigation into the attack.
Students are still sitting their exams. A message on the compromised version of the site claimed that papers had been downloaded and distributed.
What the VCAA says happened
The VCAA home page first showed an error message on the evening the incident was reported. It was later replaced with a notice reading "We'll be right back".
"Our site is currently undergoing maintenance," the page states. It adds: "We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience."
A VCAA spokesperson confirmed the page had been hacked earlier that day.
Were exam papers accessed?
The authority says no. "There is no indication that exam papers from today or previous weeks have been accessed," the spokesperson said in a statement.
The VCAA has not described the scale of the breach. Its forensic investigation, the spokesperson said, aims "to determine the extent of the attack".
What students should expect
Exams for Victorian students continue and are scheduled to run through November 18. The VCAA has not announced any change to that timetable.
The hacker's claim of distributing papers has not been backed by the authority's findings so far. The investigation is the step that will test it.
A tense exam season
The incident adds to a difficult stretch for the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). Reports have also emerged of alleged errors in a VCE Biology exam, and of maths students leaving an exam in tears.
Separately, the VCAA has said cheating investigations rose 25% to 109 cases. One involved a year 12 student who smuggled a phone into a 2025 exam, photographed the paper and uploaded it to ChatGPT, then tried to pass off the AI-generated answers as their own.
The VCAA's forensic investigation is under way, and exams continue to November 18.
