OpenAI disclose another hack on government department in Australia

Attack accessing historical data on bushfires occurred in June but not disclosed by the tech company until Thursday

The breach comes weeks after news of a similar hack on a federal government department involving Medicare data. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

Artificial intelligence company OpenAI has disclosed another unauthorised hack on a government department in Australia.

In June, an OpenAI agent hacked into a New South Wales state government department and accessed historical non-public data on bushfires without authorisation.

The breach, which comes weeks after news of a similar hack on a federal government department involving Medicare data, was not reported by the US based company until Thursday.

The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is now working with the state’s cyber security agency to investigate the breach.

The Australian Signals Directorate has also been informed of the hack on the NSW national parks and wildlife service.

OpenAI told the NSW government that its agent had operated beyond its intended use and the statistics it obtained were not publicly available.

The company first became aware of the breach on Tuesday and conducted a 48 hours review to determine its scope before informing the NSW premier’s office.

“The results we reviewed do not show that the model retrieved any personal information,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

This latest breach has added to calls for tougher regulation of AI companies and for bolstered cyber security defences.

“We simply cannot trust these companies. They have no respect for the sovereignty of our governments, of our way of life,” Greens MP Abigail Boyd said.

Boyd said it was damning that the breach occurred in June but the government was not notified until this week.

“We clearly cannot rely on these multinational big tech companies to comply with even the most minimal of social obligations such as notifying when, or even taking enough care to notice if, their products are hacking government systems,” Boyd said.

On Wednesday, the department of home affairs on Wednesday told federal departments to examine their older software and ensure cyber security was up to date.

The prime minister expressed his “extreme concern” about at an OpenAI agent hacking Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in June.

The Victorian Department of Health and the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research were also compromised by an OpenAI agent.

An artificial intelligence agent is a system that autonomously solves problems, makes decisions, plans and performs complex tasks on behalf of another user or system, using all available tools.

- The Guardian with contributions from AAP.