A swarm of OpenAI rogue AI agents appear to have gone on a spree of trying to access Australian government health data, in what some researchers say is the first autonomous hack of a government website.
Communications between AI agents and other traces of their efforts found by researchers from US non-profit Transluce show how hundreds of Open AI’s agents worked together over a period of months to gain access to information held by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), NSW’s crime statistics body, BOSCAR, and a number of other international organisations.
The data shows the bots posting about their unsuccessful attempts to bypass cybersecurity defences and exploit vulnerabilities. It follows revelations announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this morning that OpenAI’s AI agents had also accessed non-public Medicare health statistics held by Services Australia.
Read more…
Source: ABC News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Step-by-step through the Money Message ransomware
October 30, 2023
In August 2023, the Sophos X-Ops Incident Response team was engaged to support an organization in Australia infected with Money Message ransomware. This attack vector, known for its stealth, does not append any file extensions to the encrypted data, making it harder for victims to identify the encrypted files simply by spotting such extensions. In ...
- Microsoft to help Australia’s cyber spies amid $5bn investment in cloud computing
October 23, 2023
Microsoft says it will invest an additional $5bn in Australia over the next two years to expand hyperscale cloud computing capacity while collaborating with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to boost domestic protection from cyber threats. Anthony Albanese confirmed the new investment on the opening day of his state visit to the United States during an ...
- Australia: Pizza Hut says customer data breached in cyber hack
September 20, 2023
The personal details of pizza lovers across Australia have been compromised in a cyber attack on Pizza Hut. The popular fast-food chain, with 251 restaurants across the country, revealed it had been hacked in an email to customers on Wednesday. “In early September, we became aware of a cyber security incident where an unauthorised third party ...
- HWL Ebsworth hack: 65 Australian government agencies affected by cyber-attack
September 18, 2023
Sixty-five Australian government departments and agencies were victims of the cyber-attack on legal firm HWL Ebsworth, the national cybersecurity coordinator has revealed. In a speech on Monday, Air Marshal Darren Goldie also revealed that some people and clients with personal information exposed in the hack have yet to be informed. The Russian-linked ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group hacked the law ...
- Australia ranked among the most targeted countries for ransomware attacks
August 23, 2023
Cybersecurity experts warn Australian businesses are under threat as the nation remains one of the most targeted for ransomware attacks. Threat analysis company Flashpoint ranked Australia eight following 11 ransomware attacks in July, behind the USA and the UK. Read more… Source: News.com.au
- Cyber attack on Aussie energy services firm may hit UK CNI
August 21, 2023
Operators of critical utility infrastructure across the UK may have been affected by a developing cyber attack on the systems of Energy One, an Australia-based supplier of software and services for the energy sector. The ongoing incident was disclosed via a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on the morning of Monday 21 August (Sunday ...