FBI Investigates Home of Ex-College Board Official for Possible Connection to Massive SAT Test Leak

Reuters exclusively reported that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted a search in the home of Manuel Alfaro - a former employee of the College Board which is the standardized testing company responsible for creating the SAT college entrance exam widely used in US universities.

Ongoing Investigation

The search is part of the Fed's ongoing investigation into a security breach that caused hundreds of SAT questions to leak.

According to Reuters, "the FBI is investigating alleged computer intrusion and theft against an unidentified victim corporation involving confidential or proprietary information including tests, test forms and internal emails, according to a search warrant issued in the case."

Last Friday, the FBI seized the computer terminals and other related materials from Alfaro's home.

Serious Breach

The FBI's investigation comes at a time when earlier this month Reuters reported that it was able to take hold of 400 unpublished questions of the SAT's redesigned version which launched this year in March.

Security experts said that the SAT test leak is one of the most serious security breaches in the standardized testing industry.

Ex- College Board Employee

Manuel Alfaro served at the College Board in February 2015 as executive director of assessment design and development.

In the last couple of months, Alfaro had made contact with seven state governments officials to accuse that the College Board had apparently made false claims about its tests during bidding for public contracts with the seven states.

Alfaro accused the College Board for misleading the states about the process it used to make the questions for the SAT's redesigned version. He claimed that the so-called redesigned version was flawed.

Alfaro made public his allegations mostly through his LinkedIn account.

A spokesman from the College Board, Zach Goldberg, stated that the SAT leak is a crime. "We are pleased that this crime is being pursued aggressively by the FBI."

Goldberg dismissed Alfaro's claims about the SAT creation-making process as utterly false.