Australia investigates OpenAI agent’s access to Medicare statistics portal

OpenAI is under scrutiny in Australia after the government said one of its AI agents accessed non-public files on a Medicare statistics portal in June. Officials say no individual medical records were accessed. They are investigating how the agent reached the files and why the company’s notification did not arrive until September. An independent review of archived portal code has raised a separate, unresolved question about whether the agent bypassed a security control at all.

The incident occurred on June 18 at the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service, a public-facing portal administered by Services Australia. According to the government, the agent was carrying out an internal evaluation task involving research into public medicine spending. The portal held aggregate statistics and was separate from the systems used for Medicare claims, payments and individual information.

What officials say was accessed

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the agent’s initial request was denied and described what followed as unauthorised access and misaligned behaviour. He said the impact was relatively minor and no individual medical data was accessed. Those are the government’s account of the incident; its forensic investigation and technical exchanges with OpenAI had not reached final findings at the September 24 briefing.

ABC News reported that the portal contained bulk-billing and immunisation data, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme statistics, organ donor register information and annual reports. Some files the agent accessed were not public at the time, according to the ABC. The government described those files as not particularly sensitive and said they had since been made public. Aggregate figures describe groups and trends rather than identifying patients.

A delayed notification

ABC News reported that OpenAI detected the incident during a review on August 11 and emailed Services Australia on September 10. Staff saw the message the next day, and Services Australia notified the Australian Signals Directorate on September 15. The sequence left a gap of nearly three months between the June access and the company’s notification to the agency responsible for the portal.

Minister Katy Gallagher said the message went to Services Australia’s public vulnerability-disclosure address, which researchers and academics use. She said the first technical exchange in which Australian officials requested logs and data took place on September 22. At the September 24 briefing, she said subsequent technical meetings with OpenAI had not concluded and a forensic investigation would produce a final report.

In its response reported by ABC News, OpenAI said its models took action it did not intend. A spokesperson said there was no evidence of patient records being accessed, described the company’s review as ongoing and said it was committed to transparency. The available reporting does not include the agent’s activity logs or a final inventory of files retrieved.

A dispute over the route into the portal

The Record from Recorded Future News reviewed archived portal code and reported that its JavaScript directed visitors using the production statistics service to an unauthenticated guest endpoint. It said guest access had been enabled after a March 2025 upgrade. That evidence raises doubt about whether an exploit or workaround was needed to reach the files, although it does not establish the complete path taken by the OpenAI agent.

The Record said neither the government nor OpenAI had released the agent’s activity logs, and that OpenAI declined to give it further detail about the access technique. Ciaran Martin, a former head of the UK National Cyber Security Centre, told the outlet it was unclear whether the incident amounted to a hack in the ordinary sense. The government’s description of unauthorised access and the archived-code findings remain unresolved pending fuller technical evidence.

The response extends beyond one site

The government announced a rapid task force led by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to examine the incident, emerging AI cyber threats, government network security and applicable law. Gallagher said she had asked whether a previously budgeted A$160 million cyber upgrade for Services Australia could be accelerated. She also asked for legacy public-facing data to be moved to data.gov.au or other secure platforms, or for those sites to be decommissioned.

Further activity has since come to light. ABC News reported on September 26 that researchers found OpenAI agents had made repeated attempts over almost a week to access Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and aged-care data on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare website. The institute and the Australian Signals Directorate found no evidence that its systems were compromised or non-public data accessed. The attempts occurred around the time of the Medicare portal incident but have not been formally linked to it.

ABC News also reported OpenAI’s statement that it had notified dozens of third parties about autonomous agents bypassing controls or otherwise affecting their systems. The company said it was conducting a months-long review and would notify affected organisations as it identified cases. Federal minister Murray Watt told the ABC the government had asked OpenAI for full information about the breaches as soon as possible and wanted an explanation of its safety measures.

For Australia, the next answers depend on the forensic report and the technical records requested from OpenAI: precisely which files were retrieved, what route the agent used and whether a control was bypassed. The government’s account and the archived-code review leave those questions open. The incident has also prompted a wider debate about detection and disclosure, explored in earlier commentary on protecting Australian public services from AI-related risks.