WAEC reacts to https://waecgh.org takeover by Indonesian hacker

The not-for-money-making organization (WAEC) following its official website https://waecgh.org takeover by an alleged cyber criminal from Indonesia has completely shut the portal to host the 2023 WASSCE and BECE results.

An official of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) who spoke to AcademicWeek on condition of anonymity said his outfit is investigating what caused the breach, however, technical experts are working to restore the site online.

He explained that subdomains of the African Examinations Council website including https://eresults.waecgh.org, the portal for checking Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results were not affected by the cyber attack.

“The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results portal (https://eresults.waecgh.org) is online but the official website of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has been taken down for technical reasons,” he said.

The WAEC official comment comes after a hacker in the early hours of October 16, 2023, compromised waecgh.org and replaced the homepage which usually has education-related content with what could best be described as gambling content.

In a related development, the Ministry of Education (MoE) as part of measures to ensure the school placement system is not compromised says it has secured the computerised school selection and placement system with a firewall to detect any unauthorized access.

In a discussion monitored by AcademicWeek, Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum said the move is to protect the state-of-the-art computer second cycle school placement system from any possible cyber attack or hack.

“Even If someone manages to hack into the school placement system, the system has a firewall to withstand it. So the idea that people who work on it can go in there and make changes is not accurate,” the Education Minister said.

Adutwum’s comment comes after The Fourth Estate investigation disclosed that some individuals who claim to be officials from the Ministry of Education monetized the 2021 school placement the Education Ministry has said is free.

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According to the Estate’s report, computer placement into Category A or what could best be described as Top Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the country was sold from GH₵10,000 up to GH₵ 7,000 by the self-acclaimed MoE officials.

Source: AcademicWeek