Following Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps’ arrest of a syndicate in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, the suspects have confessed how they erected a radio mast to hack the Virtual Private Network of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB.
The syndicate, including a proprietor of one Bright Technologies, confessed to collecting N600,000 for the illegal job.
The hacker’s wife and other accomplices were also arrested by the NSCDC crack team from Abuja. Other suspects, identified only as Segun and Jide, are at large.
One of the suspects, identified only as Tosin, said the deal was to extend the JAMB network from an accredited Computer Based Test centre in Abeokuta to some cyber cafe operators for the purpose of illegal registration of candidates for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.
During the interrogation, the proprietor, who confessed to the crime, said he was paid over N600,000 for the job, adding that he created over 400 User Names and passwords.
He told the operatives, “We are using unlicensed spectrum to transmit to our customers using 2.4 gigabyte and 5.8 gigabyte radio. On March 28, they came from Kindle e-Learning Service that they wanted Internet services and after three days, they came again, (Tosin, Segun and Jide) that they wanted us to configure VPN for them.
“They told me they needed our services only during the JAMB registration and on April 1, we went to their office. They gave me the IP (Internet Protocol) address and I did pinging from my own Router. I have collected about N600,000 so far from Kindle e-Learning.”
The NSCDC said the gang specialised in high-tech hacking.
JAMB Head of Information, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, said the intention of the group was to completely demobilise the Board process.
He said, “With what we saw, we are of the strong opinion that the DSS should also come in to consolidate on the investigation done by NSCDC.
“This is because if this group has the IP address of any bank; they could take the whole money in the banks.”
