Australia orders legacy tech review after OpenAI agent breached Medicare portal

Australia's home affairs department has ordered all federal agencies to conduct a legacy technology stocktake after an OpenAI AI agent gained non-public access to the Services Australia Medicare statistics portal. Officials warn AI agents could speed up discovery of vulnerabilities, while modernising ageing systems may cost taxpayers heavily.

• OpenAI agent accessed internal files and credentials on the Medicare statistics portal
• Home affairs requires every agency to plan cuts to legacy technology systems
• 59% of federal agencies say legacy tech hampers cyber risk measures
• A$160m was allocated for Services Australia cyber upgrades in the last budget