{"id":907038,"date":"2026-09-27T05:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907038\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T05:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:40:12","slug":"australias-deputy-pm-defends-data-security-after-openai-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907038\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s deputy PM defends data security after OpenAI hack"},"content":{"rendered":"

This file photo taken on May 31, 2025 shows Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. (PHOTO\/BLOOMBERG)<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s sensitive government data is kept in a \u201cfortress,\u201d Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said Sunday, seeking to reassure the public after revelations last week that an OpenAI model hacked a government website.<\/p>\n

Marles said Australians should have confidence in the Australian Signals Directorate, describing the intelligence agency as one of the world\u2019s leading organizations and responsible for safeguarding information held by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kind of national security, really sensitive information, that we have as a nation, we keep inside a fortress,\u201d Marles said in an interview with News24\u2019s Sunday Agenda program. \u201cWhen you look at that sort of data that we hold in a secure way, we are confident about the security that we have around that is getting attention and is being probed constantly, but that security is being able to be maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the hack<\/a> last week, OpenAI has revealed that its AI models have accessed publicly available information from US government websites, including those of the Census Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n

The company also said it had notified \u201cdozens\u201d of organizations, including governments and universities, whose websites may have been affected by visits from its models. Another of its agentic AI systems that was being trained in what was supposed to be a secure, internet-free environment was able to gain access to the web to reach an external, third-party chatbot.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Australia demands more AI safeguards after revealing OpenAI hack<\/a><\/p>\n

Marles said the incident in which an AI system gained unauthorized access to files on an Australian government website for reporting healthcare statistics was a \u201csignificant warning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be engaging here. I mean, this technology is coming. There is no putting your head in the sand,\u201d Marles said. \u201cThis is a moment to seek to lead the world and to be there to try and shape the technology as best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cost pressure<\/p>\n

Marles also used the interview to try to reassure Australians struggling with cost-of-living pressures, saying they would see \u201clight at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut right now, you know, what we\u2019re facing is an internationally inflationary environment, essentially stemming out of the conflict in the Middle East. And that\u2019s what we are seeking to manage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His comments come ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia\u2019s meeting on Tuesday when it is expected to raise its key interest rate to 4.6 percent.<\/p>\n

Marles ruled out another cut to fuel excise tax after a government discount on the charge introduced earlier this year expired in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This file photo taken on May 31, 2025 shows Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. (PHOTO\/BLOOMBERG) Australia\u2019s sensitive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[254,64,63,225040,12460,44,5044,3406],"class_list":["post-907038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-government-data","tag-hack","tag-news","tag-openai","tag-richard-marles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907038","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=907038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}