{"id":781222,"date":"2026-09-24T16:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781222\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T16:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:08:14","slug":"australia-launches-urgent-review-after-openai-program-hacks-government-health-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781222\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia launches urgent review after OpenAI program hacks government health portal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Email inbox OpenAI used was &#8216;looked at once a day&#8217; &#8211; Australian ministerpublished at 10:26 BST<\/p>\n<p>10:26 BST<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Photo of Email app icon on iPhone screen showing a very full inbox count notification\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/de124206-e423-4986-93c2-2eedd0c273ff.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1009\" height=\"567\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">One thing that has surprised experts is not just the breach by an autonomous AI program &#8211; but the fact that OpenAI only told the Australian government three months later, via an email to general address.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The breach happened on 18 June. OpenAI said it became aware of a potential breach during a broader review sometime in August. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On 10 September, it sent an email to the public inbox of Services Australia, the general services hub of the federal government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On 15 September, Services Australia reported the notification to the Australian Cyber Security Centre. A few days later, the Minister for the Public Service, Katy Gallagher, was notified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Asked by reporters how it took five days for Services Australia to notify the cybersecurity centre, Gallagher acknowledged that the inbox could be more actively monitored \u2013 it is currently &#8220;looked at once a day&#8221;, Gallagher said earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It gets sometimes quite a number of notifications, sometimes many of them are hoaxes,&#8221; she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Still, the notification shouldn&#8217;t have been passed along in an email thread, Gallagher said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It should have been escalated through ASD&#8217;s channels or through the senior levels of Services Australia.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Katy Gallagher, speaking to the media in Sydney earlier\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/7a5475ab-031f-4f31-935c-6581e1a306ae.jpg.webp\"  width=\"894\" height=\"503\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Katy Gallagher, speaking to the media in Sydney earlier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Email inbox OpenAI used was &#8216;looked at once a day&#8217; &#8211; Australian ministerpublished at 10:26 BST 10:26 BST&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-781222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}