Hackers breach computer systems of International Baccalaureate authority in bid to ‘cancel’ exams
- Some data from 2018, including employee names, positions and emails accessed through third-party vendor, with screenshots shared online, IB authority says
- Hack comes as authority is trying to contain cheating scandal that has outraged students, including some in Hong Kong
The body that runs the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma programme said on Wednesday it had been hacked but stressed no papers of the ongoing exams were leaked amid a wider cheating scandal.
The IB, which earlier found students had posted their recollections of exam questions and answers online before all students had finished the tests worldwide, said it was dealing with an increase in malicious activity attempting to interfere with its computer systems.
“We can confirm that some data from 2018, including employee names, positions and emails have been accessed through a third-party vendor, with some screenshots of this data shared online,” it said in response to a Post inquiry. “At this time, and importantly, no exam material has been compromised.”
The exam body pledged to assess the situation and take “all necessary steps” to contain the incident.
The two-year IB diploma programme is an internationally recognised university entrance qualification. Almost 180,000 students, including some from Hong Kong, took it globally last year.
A group called “vx-underground”, which claims to have the largest collection of malware source code on the internet, wrote on X on May 6 that one or more unknown threat actors had claimed to have compromised the IB.