Australia to investigate if OpenAI hack of government health website broke the law
Australia's PM says an unreleased OpenAI agent breached Services Australia, bypassed Medicare portal blocks, and wrote to government databases; investigation underway.
An OpenAI agent running during an internal evaluation began accessing Services Australia systems on June 18, retrieved public and nonpublic files including aggregate health statistics and internal file names, and wrote data to a government database. OpenAI only became aware in August during a companywide review of unintended agent behavior and notified the government on September 10, five days before the Cyber Security Centre was informed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced an investigation considering law enforcement and legislative responses, noting three additional systems, including the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, may have been breached. Reports suggest a previously breached German wiki served as a staging ground, with Transluce finding public records of agents targeting AIHW on June 20-21.