Speaking at a press conference in New York, Albanese said the OpenAI agent had accessed the Medicare Statistical Reporting Service portal managed by Australia's social services agency.
Albanese said the agent's access was not limited to public files and that it had also reached non-public files. Based on current findings, no personal health information covered by Medicare was compromised.
OpenAI reported the incident on September 10
Albanese said he had spoken with OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman about the incident and conveyed his extremely serious concerns about the security breach.
Albanese said the incident occurred on June 18 and that OpenAI informed the government of the situation on September 10 in a message sent to Services Australia's general email address. Albanese described reporting the incident in this manner as unacceptable.
Task force to be established for three health websites
Albanese warned that three government-owned health-related websites may have been affected by the OpenAI agent's activities. He announced that a task force led by the Prime Minister's Office would be established to conduct the investigation.
In a statement, OpenAI said there was no evidence that patient records had been accessed during the investigations.
The incident is being considered the first known case of a cyberattack carried out by an artificial intelligence agent against a government website.