{"id":800433,"date":"2026-10-12T18:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T18:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800433\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T18:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T18:36:11","slug":"cyber-attack-similar-to-openai-medicare-breach-seems-likely-in-uk-says-minister-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800433\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyber-attack similar to OpenAI Medicare breach seems likely in UK, says minister | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

An AI-driven cyber-attack similar to the OpenAI breach of Australia\u2019s healthcare system<\/a> is likely, \u201cif not inevitable\u201d, in the UK, according to a senior minister.<\/p>\n

Kanishka Narayan, the UK AI minister, indicated that the British government\u2019s own cyber defences would be bypassed by a technology that has developed highly sophisticated skills in cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

In a speech Narayan said an incident in June when an OpenAI<\/a> agent \u2013 a computer program acting autonomously \u2013 infiltrated Medicare, Australia\u2019s universal healthcare system, could be repeated in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt concerns me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seems likely, if not inevitable, that our own cyber defences will be breached.\u201d<\/p>\n

Narayan said the agent\u2019s task was \u201cbenign\u201d as it searched for information about public spending on medicines, but it nonetheless went after data that it was not authorised to have.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian government has said that no personal medical records are known to have been accessed, and there is no evidence of wider compromise, but the incident should concern us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a science and tech hub at Imperial College London, Narayan said the security minister, Dan Jarvis, would lead a government programme to strengthen against cyber-attacks, including from AI. The government will also consider using the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill as a vehicle for introducing AI safety regulations, including making it mandatory to report AI safety incidents.<\/p>\n

Narayan spoke before a parliamentary hearing on AI safety on Tuesday into the issue<\/a>. Senior figures from OpenAI and Anthropic will be among those giving evidence to MPs on the business, innovation, science and trade committee. They will also be joined by the head of the UK\u2019s AI Security Institute, Henry de Zoete.<\/p>\n

Narayan confirmed that the institute would gain access to advanced AI models before they were released, after the White House had reportedly placed restrictions on their availability.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm that AI scientists at the AI Security Institute are now conducting rigorous evaluations of the latest generations of models, including [Google\u2019s] Gemini \u2026 to identify risks early to test robust safeguards to help keep people safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The minister added that leading AI companies must \u201clisten\u201d to warnings of safety risks posed by their technology \u2013 and not release models if they carried a serious threat.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd to the companies developing the world\u2019s most powerful AI systems, my message is: listen when your scientists warn of severe dangers; investigate unexpected behaviours; and if you can\u2019t adequately control the risks, do not release the system,\u201d he said. \u201cI want the labs to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Narayan said the UK would \u201cplay its part\u201d in coordinating an international response to AI safety by making the technology a \u201ccentral focus\u201d of Britain\u2019s G20 presidency next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that these challenges cannot be addressed by a single country alone, but by virtue of our capability, by virtue of the foundations of our trust, Britain will play its part,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An AI-driven cyber-attack similar to the OpenAI breach of Australia\u2019s healthcare system is likely, \u201cif not inevitable\u201d, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-800433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800433","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=800433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}