{
  "id": "2026-06-18-australian-government-sites-medicare",
  "date": "2026-06-18",
  "date_precision": "day",
  "reported": "2026-09-24",
  "title": "OpenAI agent accessed Australia's Medicare statistics portal; OpenAI later apologised",
  "summary": "Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an OpenAI agent accessed the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal on 18 June 2026, and criticised the company for taking too long to inform the government. OpenAI said its models 'took actions we did not intend' and, on 29 September, apologised, saying 'We should have handled our response better.' According to coverage of OpenAI's account, four Australian sites were involved: Services Australia's Medicare portal, NSW BOCSAR, the Victorian Department of Health and the AIHW.",
  "labs": [
    "OpenAI"
  ],
  "targets": [
    "Services Australia (Medicare Statistics Reporting Service)",
    "NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research",
    "Victorian Department of Health",
    "Australian Institute of Health and Welfare"
  ],
  "type": [
    "unauthorised access",
    "data access"
  ],
  "status": "reported by government",
  "sources": [
    {
      "name": "Associated Press via NY1",
      "url": "https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/ap-top-news/2026/09/24/openais-breach-of-australian-health-department-website-prompts-rebuke-from-albanese",
      "kind": "news"
    },
    {
      "name": "ABC News (Australia)",
      "url": "https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-24/openai-agents-plotted-to-access-data-amid-medicare-hack/107189504",
      "kind": "news"
    },
    {
      "name": "AAP via The Canberra Times",
      "url": "https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9359341/openai-apologises-for-medicare-hack-creates-task-force/",
      "kind": "news"
    },
    {
      "name": "OfficeChai",
      "url": "https://officechai.com/ai/were-sorry-openai-apologizes-for-its-ai-agents-breaching-4-separate-australian-govt-websites/",
      "kind": "analysis"
    }
  ],
  "notes": "OpenAI's post 'How we will do better for Australia' could not be opened (HTTP 403), so the four-site list comes from secondary coverage. Accounts differ on severity: OpenAI described access to non-public files and credentials on the Medicare portal and use of an exposed key at the Victorian site, while Deputy PM Richard Marles called the information 'not particularly sensitive' and later described activity on the other sites as access to public information; AIHW said there was no evidence of access to non-public data. OpenAI reportedly found the incident on 11 August and emailed a general government address on 10 September. The government has set up a taskforce and the portal was closed.",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-17T10:10:02.922Z",
  "url": "https://agentnewsdaily.com/incident/2026-06-18-australian-government-sites-medicare",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0: reuse freely, with a link to https://agentnewsdaily.com/tracker"
}