{"id":903067,"date":"2026-09-23T23:40:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/903067\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T23:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:40:18","slug":"openai-medicare-data-breach-anthony-albanese-labels-medicare-statistics-reporting-service-security-incident-unacceptable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/903067\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI Medicare data breach: Anthony Albanese labels Medicare Statistics Reporting Service security incident unacceptable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated September 24, 2026 \u2014 8:28am,first published 6:25am<\/p>\n

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An artificial intelligence agent infiltrated a Medicare website in June, accessing public and non-public files and writing files to an internal server, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters in New York, Albanese said the incident involved an OpenAI agent gaining unauthorised access to the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, administered by Services Australia.<\/p>\n

He said the incident occurred in June this year, but the Commonwealth government was only informed via an email from OpenAI on September 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis situation is obviously unacceptable,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd today, I spoke with the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, to express Australia\u2019s extreme concern about this incident, and I also expressed my disappointment that it took the company way too long to inform the government what had occurred and the nature of the way that that notification occurred as well was unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite persistent questioning, Albanese would not reveal whether he discussed the breach in his conversation with President Donald Trump<\/a> last night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do it privately … I have a relationship with President Trump, where we have conversations, and … to some people\u2019s surprise, it must be said, have a very good relationship because we do have a relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PrimePrime Minister Anthony Albanese would not reveal whether he discussed the breach in his conversation with President Donald Trump.Dominic LorrimerRelated Article\"United<\/a><\/p>\n

Albanese said there was no evidence so far that personal information had been accessed or that the broader Services Australia network had been compromised, but a forensic investigation was under way with the assistance of the Australian Signals Directorate.<\/p>\n

He said the government was also aware of three other systems that may be affected: the Commonwealth\u2019s Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research; and the Victorian Department of Health.<\/p>\n

Early evidence<\/p>\n

Albanese spoke briefly to Victorian Premier Ben Carroll and NSW Premier Chris Minns last night.<\/p>\n

He said the early evidence has found the agent accessed publicly available files, as well as material not intended for public access.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvidence currently available is there is no broader compromise to the Services Australia network. Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo personal information is believed to have been accessed at this stage, but investigations are ongoing,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n

He said the incident began on June 18 when an OpenAI research team used an internal model to conduct internet-based research into the public medicine space.<\/p>\n

The AI agent encountered repeated blocks while seeking information from the government portal but found ways around them, ultimately gaining unauthorised access to other areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were blocks clearly which were coming back, telling the AI agent no,\u201d Albanese said. \u201cThe AI agent found a way around those blocks, didn\u2019t accept no for an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agent then accessed public and non-public information and, according to Services Australia, also wrote files to an internal server. Albanese said OpenAI did not notify the government until September 10, almost three months after the incident, and did so by sending an email to a public mailbox.<\/p>\n

\"OpenAIOpenAI chief Sam Altman.Bloomberg<\/p>\n

Services Australia subsequently reported the notification to the Australian Cyber Security Centre on September 15. The agency informed Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher of the incident last week, with Albanese saying he was briefed over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Task force<\/p>\n

The government will establish a task force led by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to urgently examine the incident and determine whether existing processes are adequate for responding to AI-related cyber incidents.<\/p>\n

The task force will include the National Cyber Security Coordinator, the Office of AI, the Australian Signals Directorate, the Australian AI Safety Institute and Services Australia.<\/p>\n

The review will examine possible law enforcement and legislative responses, while the incident will also be referred to Parliament\u2019s Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.<\/p>\n

Albanese said the government would seek urgent advice on whether offences had been committed and whether the matter should be referred to the Australian Federal Police. The incident will also feed into the government\u2019s planned AI standards legislation.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Prime<\/a><\/p>\n

OpenAI said its models had accessed \u201cseveral Australian government websites and services\u201d during an internal evaluation. The models were trying to look up answers and statistics for questions about Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the course of that, our models took actions we did not intend,\u201d an OpenAI spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The company said its review found no evidence that patient records had been accessed. It said the information accessed included aggregate health statistics and internal file names.<\/p>\n

OpenAI said the activity took place in June, but it did not become aware of it until August. It found the activity during a review of what it calls \u201cmisaligned model activity\u201d in its training and evaluation. It said it notified Services Australia on September 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe notified the organisations and are providing technical information to support their investigations and help address potential security vulnerabilities,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cOur overall review is ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

OpenAI did not say which other government websites and services were affected.<\/p>\n

Albanese used the disclosure to reinforce his argument for tighter safeguards around rapidly developing AI technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is changing the world,\u201d he said, pointing to its potential to deliver economic growth, productivity gains and advances in health, science and innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut AI also poses significant risks, and that\u2019s why we need guardrails to protect our way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that we shape AI rather than AI shaping us. Put simply, humans must remain in control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Albanese said the government understood the incident would be concerning to Australians but sought to reassure the public that no individuals were currently known to have been affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point in time, there is no evidence that any individuals have been impacted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Albanese said some details could remain confidential if they involved national security, but Australians had a right to know about the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important that people are aware that this has occurred,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

News of the breach comes two days after Albanese urged other world leaders to unite on efforts to protect people from the risks of artificial intelligence, saying that no country can manage the technology\u2019s growing risks alone.<\/p>\n

Australia was among 22 signatories calling for new international safeguards on AI at the United Nations on Monday, amid warnings from scientists and industry executives<\/a> that the rapid development of powerful systems could outpace governments\u2019 ability to control emerging risks.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump has rejected calls for slowdowns and restrictions on AI growth<\/a>, warning that any self-imposed guardrails would give China a dangerous advantage.<\/p>\n

\"CyberCXCyberCX co-founder Alastair MacGibbon.Oscar Colman<\/p>\n

Over the past two months, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have each said their models broke into real computer systems while being tested for hacking ability.<\/p>\n

Alastair MacGibbon, Australia\u2019s former cybersecurity tsar and co-founder of CyberCX said the agent had not been set up to hack anything.<\/p>\n

Breach unnoticed<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an agent that was not tasked with hacking; it was tasked with medical research, and it just happened to use tools in its tool belt to go about achieving that objective, which involved basically hacking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not doing it because they\u2019re malicious. They\u2019re doing it because they\u2019ve been given a task. Imagine if you had a malicious human getting agents to do these tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacGibbon said the bigger concern was that the breach went unnoticed. \u201cThe question we should be asking is the Australian government didn\u2019t detect this in June,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also criticised the government\u2019s funding for AI oversight. He compared the AI Safety Institute\u2019s budget to a couple of road black spot programs in Queensland over four years. He said he understood the Office of AI in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet had \u201cliterally a handful of people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in this game for 25 years and we\u2019ve been failing,\u201d MacGibbon said. \u201cNow that we have an Australian victim \u2026 It has to be taken seriously. The hubris has to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"RobRob Harris<\/a> is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email<\/a>.\"DavidDavid Swan<\/a> is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated September 24, 2026 \u2014 8:28am,first published 6:25am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-903067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}