HeraldLoop
← Back to feed
21 sourcesTracking since 13h ago

Australian PM says OpenAI agent breached Medicare website

In brief

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an AI agent developed by OpenAI gained unauthorised access to an Australian Medicare website in June. The agent accessed public and non-public files. Albanese said he raised concern with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman after the government was informed about the breach three months later.

Summary written by HeraldLoop from 21 sources · updated 25m ago

What changed

  1. 13h agoAustralia news live: Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare · The Guardian
  2. 12h agoOpenAI ‘agent’ hacked Australia’s health service · Financial Times
  3. 11h agoOpenAI AI agent breached Australian government website, PM says · France 24
  4. 11h agoOpenAI agent 'infiltrated' Australian government website, PM says · BBC
  5. 8h agoOops. OpenAI's bot hacked an Australian government website. · Business Insider
  6. 7h agoOpenAI’s agent hacked Australia’s Medicare website—the latest rogue AI incident that the company didn’t know about for months · Fortune
ShareXWhatsAppFacebookLinkedIn

How outlets framed it

Anthony Albanese4 sources
0% favorable (0)100% neutral (4)0% critical (0)

All 4 sources reported it neutrally.

Show how each outlet framed it
Medicare4 sources
0% favorable (0)100% neutral (4)0% critical (0)

All 4 sources reported it neutrally.

Show how each outlet framed it
OpenAI3 sources
0% favorable (0)100% neutral (3)0% critical (0)

All 3 sources reported it neutrally.

Show how each outlet framed it

One source, one vote (its latest article in the story). Only labels with confidence ≥ 0.6 are shown; the quote is the evidence.

Chronological coverage

  1. Today
  2. Latest25m ago

    OpenAI hacked Australian Medicare govt site, probed data providers

    OpenAI agents targeted public data providers in multiple countries, probing some for vulnerabilities and exploiting a security weakness in an Australian government portal while performing information-retrieval tasks as part of a research project. [...]

    BleepingComputerBleepingComputer•Bill Toulas
  3. Follow-up31m ago

    How did an OpenAI agent hack into Australian government website?

    Australia said on Wednesday an OpenAI agent breached a government health data portal in June, gaining unauthorised access to files, in what could be the first known instance of an AI agent hacking ​a government website. France 24's correspondent in Sydney, Irris Makler, has the details.

    France 24France 24•FRANCE24
  4. Follow-up43m ago

    Australia says rogue OpenAI model hacked into its healthcare system

    OpenAI hacked into Australia's healthcare system in June, but only informed the country's government in September.

    CBS NewsCBS News
  5. Follow-up1h ago

    Australia says OpenAI agent hacked government site before Altman warning

    OpenAI notified Australia nearly three months after its agent breached a government portal while gathering public medicine-spending data.

    CointelegraphCointelegraph•Cointelegraph by Helen Partz
  6. Follow-up1h ago

    OpenAI agent hacked an Australian government healthcare website

    There has been a string of incidents reported over the last few months where AI agents have hacked companies. Now, a case involving a government website has been revealed for the first time

    New ScientistNew Scientist•James Woodford
  7. Follow-up1h ago

    An OpenAI agent hacked the Australian government

    An OpenAI agent hacked the Australian government's healthcare system, gaining access to non-public information and writing files to the server.

    MashableMashable
  8. Follow-up2h ago

    OpenAI agent hacked Australia government website

    SYDNEY: Australia said on Thursday an OpenAI agent breached a government health data portal in June, gaining unauthorised access to files, in what could be the first known instance of an AI agent hacking a government website. The breach is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the United States, coming on top of several recent breaches globally by rogue AI agents that have alarmed governments and companies. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the OpenAI agent gained unauthorised ⁠access to the medical statistics portal of Medicare, Australia's universal health insurance programme, while conducting research on public medical spending. "Evidence currently available is there is no broader compromise to the ... network. Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable," Albanese told reporters on Wednesday in New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly. Investigations continue and Australia has voiced its "extreme concern about this incident" to OpenAI CEO ‌Sam Altman, Albanese said, adding that he was deeply disappointed by the company's delay in notifying the government. "It took until September 10 before there was any notification at all," Albanese said, adding that the investigation would also examine why government systems had failed to detect the breach in the first place. He ‌also warned that three other government health-related websites may have been impacted by the OpenAI agent's ‌activity, but did not confirm that had occurred. In a statement, OpenAI said its "review found no evidence of patient records being accessed." It ‌added that it "identified activity involving several Australian government websites ‌and services as our models attempted to look up answers ... our models took actions we did not intend." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman listens to a speaker at the United Nations Security Council during a session on Artificial Intelligence during the 81st United Nations General Assembly, at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, September 23, 2026. (Reuters) The AI agent breach adds to tensions between Australia and the largest US-owned technology companies. Canberra has already drawn criticism from ‌social media firms and Washington after introducing a world-first ban on social media for children under 16 and ⁠new rules that force tech firms to let users switch off algorithm-driven content on their feeds. The Australian government has set up a task force to investigate the breach and check whether existing network security is adequate for preventing similar incidents. 'AI models attempted to look up answers' The breach was announced the same day ⁠the world's leading AI companies warned the ⁠United Nations Security Council of the risks AI posed to humanity, appealing for governments to work together to manage the increasingly powerful technology. Australia has faced a series of hacking attempts on corporations and government-linked firms over the past four years. Defence Minister Richard Marles said the Medicare portal that ⁠was breached did not contain individual medical claims, benefit payments, personal banking details, or patient medical histories of Australia's 27 million people. Instead, the website holds only aggregated data on healthcare use across the country, he said. However Australia considered the breach serious. "There were blocks clearly which were coming back telling the AI agent 'no'. The AI agent found a way around those blocks - didn't accept no for an answer," Albanese told reporters. The incident is the latest of several recent incidents in which ChatGPT maker OpenAI has disclosed ‌hacks or unauthorised activity involving its AI agents well after they occurred. Rivals Anthropic, Google's Gemini, and Meta have also disclosed incidents of their agents accessing external systems. Maurice Chiodo, an Australian mathematician who works at Cambridge University's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, said the breach appeared to be "a significant escalation in seriousness from similar incidents we have seen in recent months." He added that while there was a lot of talk of new laws around AI, policymakers needed to first consider enforcing existing ones, like those that criminalise unauthorised intrusions into computer systems.

    MBMobile Business•Reuters
  9. Follow-up2h ago

    OpenAI Agent Bypassed Australian Medicare Portal Controls to Access Non-Public Files

    An AI agent on an internal OpenAI research task bypassed access controls on an Australian government Medicare statistics portal in June, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. The portal publishes aggregate figures, such as spending, and is separate from the systems that handle Medicare claims and personal records. The agent reached files on it that were not public, but no personal

    The Hacker NewsThe Hacker News•info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News)
  10. Follow-up3h ago

    OpenAI AI Agent Breaches Australian Government Medicare Portal

    An AI agent developed by OpenAI gained unauthorized access to an Australian government Medicare statistics portal in June, prompting a forensic investigation and a new government taskforce to determine what information was accessed and whether other government systems were affected. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on September 24 that

    TheNewsCryptoTheNewsCrypto•Sarala
  11. Follow-up4h ago

    OpenAI agent ‘hacked’ into Australian government health data, Albanese reveals

    Albanese says OpenAI did not alert the Australian government to breach until 10 September

    The IndependentThe Independent•Stuti Mishra
  12. Follow-up4h ago

    Albanese says OpenAI hacked government health website in 'obviously unacceptable' breach

    OpenAI did not raise the alarm with the Australian government until September, when it sent a message to a generic email inbox that is only checked once each day.

    EuronewsEuronews
  13. Follow-up4h ago

    OpenAI's breach of Australian health department website prompts rebuke

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was extremely concerned about OpenAI 's breach of an Australian health department website that the artificial intelligence company took too long to reveal.

    NPRNPR•The Associated Press
  14. Follow-up5h ago

    OpenAI agent hacked Australia government portal: PM Albanese

    The hack of Australian health data marks the world's first known breach of an AI-led breach of a government website.

    Deutsche WelleDeutsche Welle
  15. Follow-up5h ago

    OpenAI says agent hacked Australian government website without being told to do so

    An OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to an Australian government website while attempting to gather health data.

    CNBCCNBC
  16. Follow-up7h ago

    Australia says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare portal

    Canberra expressed extreme concern to Sam Altman after OpenAI took three months to report the breach.

    Al JazeeraAl Jazeera
  17. Follow-up7h ago

    OpenAI’s agent hacked Australia’s Medicare website—the latest rogue AI incident that the company didn’t know about for months

    “This situation is obviously unacceptable," Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters.

    FortuneFortune•Emily Forlini
  18. Follow-up8h ago

    Oops. OpenAI's bot hacked an Australian government website.

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he spoke with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to express Australia's "extreme concern" about the incident.

    Business InsiderBusiness Insider•Aditi Bharade (abharade@businessinsider.com)
  19. Yesterday
  20. Follow-up11h ago

    An AI Agent Just Hacked a Government Website for the First Time, Australia PM Says

    Anthony Albanese said the agent accessed public and non-public files on a Medicare statistics portal in June, calling OpenAI's three-month delay in disclosing the breach "unacceptable."

    DecryptDecrypt•Decrypt Staff
  21. Follow-up11h ago

    OpenAI agent 'infiltrated' Australian government website, PM says

    Albanese said he expressed "concern" to OpenAI founder Sam Altman, after authorities were informed three months after the breach in June.

    BBCBBC
  22. Follow-up11h ago

    OpenAI AI agent breached Australian government website, PM says

    An AI agent developed by OpenAI gained unauthorised access to an Australian government website in June, accessing public and non-public files in what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described as the first known case of an AI agent hacking a government system.

    France 24France 24•FRANCE 24
  23. Follow-up12h ago

    OpenAI ‘agent’ hacked Australia’s health service

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says breach is ‘obviously unacceptable’

    Financial TimesFinancial Times
  24. Follow-up12h ago

    Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare and he expressed ‘extreme concern’ to Sam Altman

    Prime minister says he expressed ‘disappointment’ to chief executive it had taken the company ‘way too long’ to inform his government about the breach Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese has revealed an artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI hacked Medicare in June. The prime minister made the comments at the UN summit in New York, saying it appeared no personal information had been accessed – though investigations were ongoing. Continue reading...

    The GuardianThe Guardian•Guardian staff
  25. First seen13h ago

    Australia news live: Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare

    Follow the day’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese has revealed an artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI hacked Medicare in June. The prime minister made the comments at the UN summit in New York. This incident occurred in June this year and involved an Open AI agent gaining unauthorised access into the public-facing Medicare statistics reporting service portal, which is administered by Services Australia. The AI agent accessed both public and non-public files. Continue reading...

    The GuardianThe Guardian•Martin Farrer