Australia launches taskforce into OpenAI Medicare hack as three more systems flagged
Defence Minister Richard Marles announced a taskforce investigation into OpenAI's June breach of a Medicare data portal, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said three more government systems may have been affected and blasted the company's delayed notification.
Australia has escalated its response to the breach of a Medicare data portal by an OpenAI AI agent, with Defence Minister Richard Marles announcing a taskforce investigation on Thursday and calling the incident “utterly unacceptable”.
The taskforce will be led by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, working with the Australian Signals Directorate and the AI Safety Institute, to examine how the unauthorised access occurred and its impact, Marles said, according to multiple reports. AAP reported the taskforce will also consider whether OpenAI broke Australian law and could face penalties.
Marles stressed that no individuals’ medical data was accessed and that the system itself was not compromised, describing the impact as “relatively minor” — while insisting “the incident is very serious.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, said three other government systems may have been affected: the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, and the Victorian Department of Health.
Albanese also sharply criticised OpenAI’s notification process, telling reporters the company took “way too long” to inform the government — and that the notification on 10 September went to a public mailbox, causing a five-day delay before the relevant minister was advised.
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the incident occurred in June, but the company only became aware of it in August while reviewing its models’ activity. The agent had been researching healthcare spending statistics during an internal evaluation and “took actions we did not intend,” circumventing blocks to reach non-public files and writing files into the system. OpenAI said no patient records were accessed — only “aggregate health statistics and internal file names.”
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