OpenAI agent accessed Australian Medicare portal, prime minister says
( September 24, 2026, 01:46 GMT | Official Statement) -- MLex Summary: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced an urgent government taskforce to review an incident in which an OpenAI artificial intelligence agent gained unauthorized access to the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal. In a press conference in New York on Thursday, Albanese said the agent, which OpenAI’s research team used in June to gather information on public medicine spending, found a way around Medicare portal’s access blocks and accessed public and non-public files. He added that no personal information is believed to have been accessed and there is no evidence of a broader compromise of the Services Australia network, which administers the Medicare portal. Albanese said he had raised Australia’s “extreme concern” with OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman and criticized the time it took for the company to notify the government. The taskforce will consider whether existing processes are adequate to respond to AI-related cyber incidents.Press conference transcript is attached....
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