Australia’s Environment Minister, Murray Watt, has described OpenAI’s response to a Medicare breach as “completely unacceptable” and said the government is considering whether criminal charges can be brought.
The unauthorised access to a Services Australia data portal occurred on June 18, after an AI agent acted independently while conducting health research. OpenAI said it did not discover the breach until August.
The company then contacted the Australian Government on September 10 through a public-facing email address used to report cyber security incidents. Services Australia is understood to have checked the inbox the following day and identified the message.
Speaking on the Sunrise programme, Mr Watt criticised both the delay in notifying authorities and the method used to report the incident.
“It’s completely unacceptable that OpenAI took so long to notify the government, and even when they did, just send an email to a generic inbox that isn’t monitored all the time,” he said.
The government has commissioned a task force to investigate the incident. Mr Watt said officials were assessing whether the matter could be referred to the Australian Federal Police under existing Australian law.
“If that is possible to happen, then that will happen,” he said. “If it’s not possible, then clearly that indicates that we need to change Australian laws and that’s what we’re doing, and I certainly hope that we would have the Opposition’s support in doing that.”
Opposition questions Services Australia cyber security
Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume said the government’s reliance on notification from OpenAI raised questions about the effectiveness of its own systems.
“What if it was a less benign breach? What if it was a less benign actor?” she asked, adding that Services Australia’s cyber security was “woefully inadequate”.
Ms Hume said Australia should bring AI companies into the country and develop frontier models domestically, arguing that artificial intelligence would be needed to counter threats involving the technology.
“AI is going to happen… the question is whether it happens to us or whether it happens with us,” she said.
Mr Watt said the incident demonstrated the need for government reform, which he said was already being pursued.
