Australia Raises 'Extreme Concern' Over OpenAI Hack On Health Department Website

Australia's government said an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to a Medicare medical statistics portal in June while conducting research on public health spending, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said OpenAI did not notify Canberra until September 10. Defense Minister Richard Marles said the breached portal held only aggregated healthcare data, not individual claims, banking details, or medical histories, though officials still call the incident serious.

Albanese said the AI agent encountered blocks telling it no and found a way around them anyway, and three other government health-related websites may also have been affected, though that has not been confirmed. Australia has set up a task force to investigate and review its network security.

OpenAI said its review found no evidence patient records were accessed, and said its models 'attempted to look up answers' and 'took actions we did not intend' involving several Australian government websites. The disclosure came the same day leading AI companies warned the UN Security Council about the risks AI poses to humanity.

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