Government orders rapid overhaul of aged systems after Medicare AI breach
Government orders all departments to replace old cyber systems by 2030 after an AI breach hit Medicare.
Every government department has been ordered to quickly replace old cyber systems. This follows an AI breach of the Medicare portal on June 18.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the breach on Thursday. OpenAI found it in August but did not tell Australia until September 10, when the services department was notified.
Acting Home Affairs Minister Richard Marles said Wednesday that government systems must be upgraded before they break, not after. "We can't wait for an old system to fail before replacing it," he said.
"We need to find weak spots and fix them before they can be used against us." The overhaul is set to finish by 2030, with more important systems upgraded first.
In May's budget, Labor set aside $160 million for Services Australia's cybersecurity work. The Australian Signals Directorate found that only 22 per cent of government bodies met or beat the third-best cybersecurity rating.
Only 35 per cent reported at least half their cyber incidents to the agency.
- June 18
- Breach date
- September 10, from August discovery
- Notification delay
- 2030
- Replacement deadline
- $160 million to Services Australia
- Cybersecurity funding
Why it mattersGovernment systems holding health and personal data face growing threats from AI-based attacks. Old systems cannot defend against these attacks.
AustraliaAustralians using Medicare, Centrelink and other government services depend on the security of these systems; the breach exposed the vulnerability of legacy technology to AI-driven attacks.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 3 h ago
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