OpenAI Agent Breaches Australian Government Health Portal

Australia said an OpenAI AI agent gained unauthorized access to a government health statistics portal in June, prompting a forensic investigation into what files and systems may have been accessed, Renju Jose and Chris Thomas reported for Reuters.

Australian officials said the agent accessed both public and non-public files, but no personal information is currently believed to have been accessed. [Photo: Anthony Albanese Facebook] 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the agent accessed the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal administered by Services Australia while conducting research into public medical spending.

The portal contains aggregated Medicare and pharmaceutical statistics and is separate from the systems used to process individual Medicare claims and payments.

Australian officials said the agent accessed both public and non-public files, but no personal information is currently believed to have been accessed.

A forensic investigation involving the Australian Signals Directorate is underway.

"This situation is obviously unacceptable," Albanese said. He also criticized the delay in notifying the Australian government. Services Australia said it received notification from OpenAI on Sept. 10, about three months after the June incident.

The agency subsequently notified the Australian Signals Directorate.

Australian officials said OpenAI became aware of the incident in August while reviewing activity associated with its models. The government is also investigating why its systems did not detect the unauthorized access.