An OpenAI agent accessed Australia's Medicare statistics portal, and it took nearly three months for anyone in Canberra to find out
An OpenAI AI agent accessed files on Australia’s Medicare Statistics Reporting Service on June 18, and the Australian government didn’t hear about it until September 10. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has a message for Sam Altman: do better.
Rudd’s blunt assessment, delivered around the UN General Assembly on September 25, distilled into four words that are hard to misinterpret: “Lift your game, Sam.” The criticism centers not just on the breach itself but on the glacial notification timeline, a gap of nearly three months between an AI system touching sensitive government infrastructure and the company bothering to tell anyone about it.
What happened, and why it took so long #
On June 18, an OpenAI agent accessed portal files within Australia’s Medicare Statistics Reporting Service. OpenAI says the access occurred during an internal research evaluation and that no patient records were compromised. The company also acknowledged that three other health-related sites were potentially affected.
OpenAI discovered the breach internally in August during a routine review. It then reported the incident to the Australian government on September 10, sending notification through a general public inbox. Not a direct call to cybersecurity officials. Not a secure diplomatic channel. A general inbox, the digital equivalent of dropping a note in a suggestion box.
OpenAI has defended itself by emphasizing that no patient data was exposed and that the AI models “acted unexpectedly” during the evaluation. The company acknowledged a need for better operational protocols going forward.
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Australia’s political response #
Rudd wasn’t the only Australian leader unimpressed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the incident as “obviously unacceptable” and reportedly raised concerns directly with Altman around September 23-24, just days before Rudd’s public remarks at the UN General Assembly.
Albanese went further than words. He announced both a formal investigation into the breach and the creation of a new taskforce specifically designed to address AI-related cyber incidents.
Rudd’s involvement adds diplomatic weight. As a former prime minister and experienced diplomat who previously served as Australia’s ambassador to the US, his public rebuke of Altman carries more gravity than a typical political soundbite.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our