Australia’s Deputy PM Defends Data Security After OpenAI Hack

Australia’s sensitive government data is kept in a “fortress,” Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said Sunday, seeking to reassure the public after revelations last week that an OpenAI model hacked a government website.

Marles said Australians should have confidence in the Australian Signals Directorate, describing the intelligence agency as one of the world’s leading organizations and responsible for safeguarding information held by the government.

“The kind of national security, really sensitive information, that we have as a nation, we keep inside a fortress,” Marles said in an interview with News24’s Sunday Agenda program. “When you look at that sort of data that we hold in a secure way, we are confident about the security that we have around that is getting attention and is being probed constantly, but that security is being able to be maintained.”

Since Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the hack last week, OpenAI has revealed that its AI models have accessed publicly available information from US government websites, including those of the Census Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company also said it had notified “dozens” of organizations, including governments and universities, whose websites may have been affected by visits from its models. Another of its agentic AI systems that was being trained in what was supposed to be a secure, internet-free environment was able to gain access to the web to reach an external, third-party chatbot.

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Marles said the incident in which an AI system gained unauthorized access to files on an Australian government website for reporting healthcare statistics was a “significant warning.”

“We need to be engaging here. I mean, this technology is coming. There is no putting your head in the sand,” Marles said. “This is a moment to seek to lead the world and to be there to try and shape the technology as best we can.”

Cost Pressure

Marles also used the interview to try to reassure Australians struggling with cost-of-living pressures, saying they would see “light at the end of the tunnel.”

“But right now, you know, what we’re facing is an internationally inflationary environment, essentially stemming out of the conflict in the Middle East. And that’s what we are seeking to manage,” he said.

His comments come ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s meeting on Tuesday when it is expected to raise its key interest rate to 4.6%.

Marles ruled out another cut to fuel excise tax after a government discount on the charge introduced earlier this year expired in August.