Government orders cyber system crackdown in wake of OpenAI breachBy political reporter Ewa StaszewskaTopic:Cyber SecurityPosted Wed 30 Sep 2026 at 12:17amWed 30 Sep 2026 at 12:17amWed 30 Sep 2026 at 12:17amIn the wake of the OpenAI breach, government departments and agencies will undergo a review to identify weaknesses. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)In short:Home Affairs has directed all government departments and agencies to review their cyber systems for weaknesses against AI threats.Acting Home Affairs Minister Richard Marles says government systems must keep up with the rapid changes sparked by artificial intelligence.What's next?Critical systems will need to be reviewed by the end of the year under the two-stage process.The OpenAI Medicare breach has prompted an urgent bolstering of government cyber systems to ensure resistance against AI threats.New details have also been revealed about OpenAI's notification to the government, sent months after its agent went rogue and gained unauthorised access to the Medicare statistics portal administered by Services Australia.Following the incident all government departments and agencies have been required to take stock of how their systems may be exposed to risks posed by AI and other emerging technologies.On Wednesday Home Affairs issued a directive advising departments to target older software and technology.Systems of Government Significance will be prioritised and a review is due by the end of the year.Less vital systems will be assessed by the end of March next year.Acting Home Affairs Minister Richard Marles stressed the importance of constantly reviewing the systems in a rapidly changing environment."AI is changing the environment in which we operate at extraordinary speed. Government systems need to keep up," he said in a statement."We can't wait for an old system to fail before replacing it. We need to identify vulnerabilities and deal with them before they can be exploited."Richard Marles says government systems need to "keep up" with the risks posed by emerging technology. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)The breach has sharpened Labor's plans to impose reporting requirements on artificial intelligence companies.Australia is set to introduce legislation for national standards to put "guardrails on AI", which would include mandatory standards for data centres, before the end of the year.A rapid review into the OpenAI breach is due to conclude within weeks and the findings are expected to inform the national standards.New details about OpenAI government disclosureOpenAI has faced scrutiny over the two-month delay in informing the government about the Services Australia breach, as well the nature of the disclosure.The website targeted was a legacy system that has since been shut down, with the data moved to a more secure address.A copy of the letter obtained by ABC reveals the framing to the government, which was notified of "security vulnerability identified" during a review of the agent's activity."An OpenAI model identified a way to make the server carry out instructions sent through the public reporting interface, without a private account or password," the notification said."It was able to access this to read portions of internal program files and settings, obtain a list of files, and create and read back a small test file on the server."OpenAI has since admitted the agent took actions the company "did not intend" during the incident.On Tuesday the ChatGPT maker apologised for the breach which was carried out by an internal-only model that did not have the safeguards used in publicly available products.In a blog post on OpenAI's website, the company said it intended to "rebuild trust with the Australian people"."We are sorry and working to do better in the future," the post said."This is a new kind of cyber incident which represents an emerging global challenge."Abigail Bradshaw says Australia enjoys "rare" access to AI frontier technology. (Reuters: Hollie Adams)Abigail Bradshaw, the director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate, welcomed the apology and noted the company's commitment to report preliminary findings early and to pause the release of the next model to ensure the guardrails are right.Ms Bradshaw said Australia enjoyed a "rare" level of engagement with frontier artificial intelligence labs to ensure vulnerabilities are patched.She added that several government systems had been "fortified" in the past six months, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics ahead of the recent census, and said there had already been a 30 per cent reduction in government legacy software technology.She said entities needed to be prioritising security over availability."We say, reduce your attack surface. What that means is, if you have a system that doesn't need to be connected to the internet, then segregate that system and isolate it," she said."The process of cyber security is like painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It never stops."