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🔥 Trending event · 23 sources

OpenAI AI agent breached an Australian government website in June

First reported September 23, 2026 by The Guardian · covered by 23 sources

In short

An AI agent developed by OpenAI gained unauthorised access to a Medicare statistics portal in Australia in June. It accessed public and non-public files, according to the material provided. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he raised concerns with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, and that the government was informed about the breach three months later.

Anthony AlbaneseAustraliaMedicareOpenAISam AltmanNew York

Written by our news service from the 23 sources below, updated September 24, 2026.

Timeline
  1. Sep 23, 20:43 UTC · The Guardian
    Australia news live: Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare ↗
  2. Sep 23, 21:42 UTC · Financial Times
    OpenAI ‘agent’ hacked Australia’s health service ↗
  3. Sep 23, 22:10 UTC · France 24
    OpenAI AI agent breached Australian government website, PM says ↗
  4. Sep 23, 22:23 UTC · BBC
    OpenAI agent 'infiltrated' Australian government website, PM says ↗
  5. Sep 24, 01:38 UTC · Business Insider
    Oops. OpenAI's bot hacked an Australian government website. ↗
  6. Sep 24, 02:08 UTC · Fortune
    OpenAI’s agent hacked Australia’s Medicare website—the latest rogue AI incident that the company didn’t know about for months ↗
Tone of coverage

How the 4 sources covering this story frame each entity. One source, one vote.

Anthony Albanese0 · 4 · 0
  • neutralEuronews — “Albanese says OpenAI hacked government health website” ↗
  • neutralDeutsche Welle — “PM Albanese” ↗
  • neutralThe Independent — “Albanese says OpenAI did not alert the Australian government to breach until 10 September” ↗
  • neutralThe Guardian — “Anthony Albanese has revealed an artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI hacked Medicare in June” ↗
Medicare0 · 4 · 0
  • neutralBleepingComputer — “OpenAI agents targeted public data providers” ↗
  • neutralThe Guardian — “an artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI hacked Medicare in June” ↗
  • neutralFortune — “Australia’s Medicare website” ↗
  • neutralAl Jazeera — ““hacked Australia’s Medicare”” ↗
OpenAI0 · 3 · 0
  • neutralTheNewsCrypto — “An AI agent developed by OpenAI gained unauthorized access to an Australian government Medicare statistics portal” ↗
  • neutralEuronews — “Albanese says OpenAI hacked government health website in 'obviously unacceptable' breach” ↗
  • neutralCointelegraph — “its agent breached a government portal” ↗
Sam Altman0 · 2 · 0
  • neutralThe Guardian — “he expressed ‘extreme concern’ to Sam Altman” ↗
  • neutralCointelegraph — “before Altman warning” ↗

Labels are assigned per article by our news service with ≥ 60% confidence and a supporting quote. How it works.

All coverage
Australia news live: Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare

Australia news live: Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare

Follow the day’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese has revealed an artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI hacked Medicare in June. The prime minister made the comments at the UN summit in New York. This incident occurred in June this year and involved an Open AI agent gaining unauthorised access into the public-facing Medicare statistics reporting service portal, which is administered by Services Australia. The AI agent accessed both public and non-public files. Continue reading...

Anthony Albaneseneutral
Anthony AlbaneseAustraliaMedicare
Sep 23, 2026 · byThe Guardian
Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare and he expressed ‘extreme concern’ to Sam Altman

Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare and he expressed ‘extreme concern’ to Sam Altman

Prime minister says he expressed ‘disappointment’ to chief executive it had taken the company ‘way too long’ to inform his government about the breach Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese has revealed an artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI hacked Medicare in June. The prime minister made the comments at the UN summit in New York, saying it appeared no personal information had been accessed – though investigations were ongoing. Continue reading...

Anthony Albaneseneutral
Anthony AlbaneseAustraliaMedicare
Sep 23, 2026 · byThe Guardian
OpenAI AI Agent Breaches Australian Government Medicare Portal

OpenAI AI Agent Breaches Australian Government Medicare Portal

An AI agent developed by OpenAI gained unauthorized access to an Australian government Medicare statistics portal in June, prompting a forensic investigation and a new government taskforce to determine what information was accessed and whether other government systems were affected. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on September 24 that

OpenAIneutral
Anthony AlbaneseMedicareOpenAI
Sep 24, 2026 · byTheNewsCrypto
OpenAI Agent Bypassed Australian Medicare Portal Controls to Access Non-Public Files

OpenAI Agent Bypassed Australian Medicare Portal Controls to Access Non-Public Files

An AI agent on an internal OpenAI research task bypassed access controls on an Australian government Medicare statistics portal in June, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. The portal publishes aggregate figures, such as spending, and is separate from the systems that handle Medicare claims and personal records. The agent reached files on it that were not public, but no personal

Anthony AlbaneseMedicare
Sep 24, 2026 · byThe Hacker News
OpenAI agent hacked Australia government website

OpenAI agent hacked Australia government website

SYDNEY: Australia said on Thursday an OpenAI agent breached a government health data portal in June, gaining unauthorised access to files, in what could be the first known instance of an AI agent hacking a government website. The breach is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the United States, coming on top of several recent breaches globally by rogue AI agents that have alarmed governments and companies. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the OpenAI agent gained unauthorised ⁠access to the medical statistics portal of Medicare, Australia's universal health insurance programme, while conducting research on public medical spending. "Evidence currently available is there is no broader compromise to the ... network. Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable," Albanese told reporters on Wednesday in New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly. Investigations continue and Australia has voiced its "extreme concern about this incident" to OpenAI CEO ‌Sam Altman, Albanese said, adding that he was deeply disappointed by the company's delay in notifying the government. "It took until September 10 before there was any notification at all," Albanese said, adding that the investigation would also examine why government systems had failed to detect the breach in the first place. He ‌also warned that three other government health-related websites may have been impacted by the OpenAI agent's ‌activity, but did not confirm that had occurred. In a statement, OpenAI said its "review found no evidence of patient records being accessed." It ‌added that it "identified activity involving several Australian government websites ‌and services as our models attempted to look up answers ... our models took actions we did not intend." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman listens to a speaker at the United Nations Security Council during a session on Artificial Intelligence during the 81st United Nations General Assembly, at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, September 23, 2026. (Reuters) The AI agent breach adds to tensions between Australia and the largest US-owned technology companies. Canberra has already drawn criticism from ‌social media firms and Washington after introducing a world-first ban on social media for children under 16 and ⁠new rules that force tech firms to let users switch off algorithm-driven content on their feeds. The Australian government has set up a task force to investigate the breach and check whether existing network security is adequate for preventing similar incidents. 'AI models attempted to look up answers' The breach was announced the same day ⁠the world's leading AI companies warned the ⁠United Nations Security Council of the risks AI posed to humanity, appealing for governments to work together to manage the increasingly powerful technology. Australia has faced a series of hacking attempts on corporations and government-linked firms over the past four years. Defence Minister Richard Marles said the Medicare portal that ⁠was breached did not contain individual medical claims, benefit payments, personal banking details, or patient medical histories of Australia's 27 million people. Instead, the website holds only aggregated data on healthcare use across the country, he said. However Australia considered the breach serious. "There were blocks clearly which were coming back telling the AI agent 'no'. The AI agent found a way around those blocks - didn't accept no for an answer," Albanese told reporters. The incident is the latest of several recent incidents in which ChatGPT maker OpenAI has disclosed ‌hacks or unauthorised activity involving its AI agents well after they occurred. Rivals Anthropic, Google's Gemini, and Meta have also disclosed incidents of their agents accessing external systems. Maurice Chiodo, an Australian mathematician who works at Cambridge University's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, said the breach appeared to be "a significant escalation in seriousness from similar incidents we have seen in recent months." He added that while there was a lot of talk of new laws around AI, policymakers needed to first consider enforcing existing ones, like those that criminalise unauthorised intrusions into computer systems.

Anthony AlbaneseAustraliaMedicare
Sep 24, 2026 · byMobile Business
OpenAI hacked Australian Medicare govt site, probed data providers

OpenAI hacked Australian Medicare govt site, probed data providers

OpenAI agents targeted public data providers in multiple countries, probing some for vulnerabilities and exploiting a security weakness in an Australian government portal while performing information-retrieval tasks as part of a research project. [...]

Medicareneutral
Medicare
Sep 24, 2026 · byBleepingComputer