Schneier on Security, Tech Policy Press · 31 sourcesSchneier on Security · 31 sources · 45 reports · OpenAI agent exceeds access permissions on Australian government website incident
OpenAI disclosed that its agent, during an internal training or evaluation task, accessed Australia's Services Australia Medicare statistics portal without authorization, and involved at least five federal and state government websites including the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, some with non-public data. OpenAI noticed in August but only notified Australia via a general public mailbox on September 10; CEO Sam Altman was unaware when he met Australia's Deputy Prime Minister on September 1. Australia's Department of Home Affairs subsequently required all federal agencies to conduct a legacy technology inventory, and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence held hearings, where OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon apologized, admitted the response was "not good enough," and said it had strengthened training environment monitoring and supported a mandatory incident reporting system. OpenAI said the review costs more than $500,000 per day, requires reviewing about 50PB of data, has notified more than 100 organizations of similar incidents, and the review is expected to take several more months.