The Nigeria Data Protection Commission has launched an investigation into the technical glitches that marred the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.
Head of Media at the NDPC, Itunu Dosekun, said the probe aims to determine whether candidates’ personal data was compromised and to assess if the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board or any of its service partners violated data protection laws.
In a statement on Tuesday, Dosekun said the alleged breach raised serious concerns over the adequacy of technical and organisational safeguards at some examination centres.
“The Commission has initiated a full-scale investigation into the alleged breach involving the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board,” she said.
Dosekun disclosed that 20 suspects linked to the incident have already been arrested and are currently in custody, noting that the breach appears to be part of a broader wave of cyberattacks on public digital infrastructure.
“Over 100 notorious hackers have been linked to coordinated attempts targeting national examination bodies such as JAMB,” she revealed.
She added that the Commission would conduct a comprehensive audit of JAMB’s data processing activities, particularly focusing on how third-party service providers manage sensitive personal data.
Meanwhile, JAMB has distanced itself from misleading messages sent to candidates through a spoofed version of its official 66019 short code.
The Board’s Public Communication Adviser, Dr Fabian Benjamin, in a statement on Wednesday, clarified that the messages — which instruct some candidates to reprint examination slips for a resit — are fake and intended to cause confusion.
He explained that many of the recipients had already sat for the resit and received their results, adding that no further examinations are currently scheduled.
“The only examination the Board is planning, which has yet to be scheduled, is the foreign UTME to be held in nine countries across Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Africa,” he said.
He added that a mop-up examination will also be held for candidates who missed the main and resit exams but have been granted waivers due to biometric verification failures.
Benjamin urged the public to disregard the fraudulent messages, assuring that all qualified candidates for the mop-up examination will be officially notified once arrangements are finalised.
