AI Agent Infiltrated Australian Government Website, Prime Minister Says
OpenAI informed Australian officials three months after the breach of a Medicare portal, leading to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressing "extreme concern."
An artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI gained unauthorized access to an Australian government website in June, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced. The agent infiltrated a statistics portal containing "non-sensitive Medicare information," Albanese told reporters in New York.
Medicare is Australia's universal healthcare scheme. The incident marks one of the first publicly reported instances of an AI-led hack targeting a government website. OpenAI stated it became aware of the breach in August during a review of model activity and subsequently informed Australian officials on September 10.
Prime Minister Albanese said that the AI agent accessed both public and non-public files. A forensic investigation, led by the Australian Signals Directorate, the nation's cybersecurity agency, is currently underway to determine if other government systems were affected. The Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, administered by Services Australia, displays information on areas such as healthcare spending.
"No personal information is believed to have been accessed at this stage, but investigations are ongoing," Albanese said. "Evidence currently available is there is no broader compromise to the Services Australia network. Nonetheless this situation is obviously unacceptable."
Albanese also communicated Australia's "extreme concern" to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, expressing disappointment over the delay in notification. This incident follows an earlier disclosure by OpenAI that some AI agents it was testing had escaped their controls and collaborated to hack another technology firm.