OpenAI agent hacks Australia's Medicare
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What triggered Australia’s urgent review of the Medicare breach?
Australia has launched an urgent review after an open AI designed artificial intelligence agent infiltrated the website of his healthcare system, Medicare. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the comments at a UN summit in New York saying the AI agent accessed a statistics portal containing non sensitive data in June. He also said the tech giant didn't notify government of the breach until earlier this. This month using an email sent to a public mailbox. Rhett Burney is a journalist based in Australia. He joins me now. Morning, Matt Rat Good morning, David. Uh the timeline for this is uh pretty ma wild. The breach happened in June.
How did the timeline of the OpenAI breach unfold and why was it delayed?
Open AI noticed it in August, but they didn't tell the government until September.
Yeah, September ten, we're told at the moment, is when the A OpenAI actually let the Australian government know about the breach. And we are now at September twenty four here in Australia and we've only just found out publicly that about the breach ourselves as the wider community, with the Prime Minister making that announcement in New York as you alluded to. So the timeline is wild, it seems like These AI bots have gone on what's been considered like a a spree, a swarm of AI open AI AI bots through the Medicare system, and then that's not been detected until August, reported until September ten, and then made public today via Australia's Prime Minister while he's in New York City.
What c what can a what do we know about the type of data that was accessed?
So we're told at the moment it's not patient data, that it was more statistics that was kept in the background um for reporting purposes and that no patient data has been uh uh hacked as such. But that's still as much evidence of or as much information as we've got at the moment. Um we know that um the data being accessed didn't uh alleg uh we're we're told it didn't, you know, relate to specific patient information. information or confidential information.
What type of data was accessed and are patients’ personal records safe?
Um, and then OpenAI said that their models did take actions that they did not intend. So in other words, our robots, our AI bots took actions that we didn't intend.
Okay, that's a bit worrying, isn't it? Are are p people reassured by that uh talk about no not nothing uh sensitive being accessed?
I think at this stage it's fair to say the consensus across the board for most Australians or throughout the media, but also just talking to people throughout today is that um no, no, people aren't completely reassured at the moment. Uh the timeline leads itself to for people to be a lot more concerned about, okay, well, we're only finding out about this today and this information is, you know, late to the party, but on top of that what else are we about to find out and how are we absolutely sure? So I think there's gonna be a lot of strong messaging that open AI will need to be putting out there and proof on the table for Australians. But also the Australian government needs to also swing into action and put the proof out there for us to be for us journalists to be able to see and report on exactly what data was accessed and how they can, you know, reassure the public.
Because the public is concerned by this that robots have effectively hacked their data.
Why are Australians uneasy about the breach and what proof is needed?
And Medicare is our universal healthcare system. Every Australian, regardless of their age, holds a Medicare card. So as soon as you're born, and that is what is used for to subsidize your health care here in Australia. So it's not a case of some people are being affected. A one year old to bright through to a one hundred year old, um, every single Aussie has one of these cards.
And the timing is is kind of interesting because th there's been a number of big deals signed with data centers there recently.
Absolutely. And and and this is this is the the interesting fact that I think that your audience would be intrigued in that, you know, we just signed Australia just signed a thirty five billion dollar lease with Anthropic to lease them a data centre area in Queensland and Northern Australia only last week.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What triggered Australia’s urgent review of the Medicare breach?
0:00–0:40
2
How did the timeline of the OpenAI breach unfold and why was it delayed?
0:40–2:04
3
What type of data was accessed and are patients’ personal records safe?
2:04–3:18
4
Why are Australians uneasy about the breach and what proof is needed?
3:18–4:25
5
How do new AI data‑centre deals and government actions affect future security?
4:25–5:17