Home Affairs orders rapid review of government-wide cyber systems after OpenAI hack
OpenAI’s Medicare breach has prompted a government-wide assessment of cyber systems to bolster Australia’s public sector against further AI threats – deliberate or not.
Home affairs directed all government departments and agencies to undertake a “rapid” stocktake of legacy systems, to formulate risk management for legacy technology and to report their compliance back to the department.
The directive prioritises systems of government significance – the government’s critical systems – with a review due by the end of the year, while other systems will be assessed by March.
The acting home affairs minister, Richard Marles, said AI is “changing the environment in which we operate at extraordinary speed.”
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.
Key events
Two men and a teenage boy have been charged in relation to the alleged mistaken identity shooting of Sydney student Marco Tapia – including the person who allegedly held the gun – police say.
Tapia, 23, was shot inside his family’s home in Glen Alpine early on 1 September. Police have alleged perpetrators had the wrong home and person.
The trio – aged 22, 23 and 16 – were arrested in Junee yesterday and charged with a series of offences: murder, two counts of special aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offence – weapon and possessing an unauthorised prohibited firearm.
Detectives will allege in court the three – one allegedly armed with a pistol – entered the home and confronted Tapia, before he was fatally shot.
All three will appear in court today – the teenager will appear in children’s court.
Two other teenage boys have been charged and remain before the courts.
Albanese to announce next stage of Melbourne airport rail link
Benita Kolovos
Early works are beginning on the second stage of the long-awaited train line to Melbourne airport – a 7.6km stretch of the train line from Albion to Keilor East, where a new station will be built.
Anthony Albanese will be in Melbourne today with Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, to announce that site investigations, procurement and development work will begin in the coming weeks.
Built alongside the Jacana freight corridor, this stage of the project will feature a 500m rail bridge to carry trains over the Maribyrnong River.
Community engagement and early designs will follow next year, with major construction on the Keilor East station to begin in 2028 and finish in 2031.
The first stage of Melbourne Airport Rail, which involves the creation of the “Sunshine superhub” and the construction of new stations at Tottenham and Albion, is expected to be completed in 2030.
A man has been charged with murder after the deaths of two men at Gurranang, about 25km north of Grafton in northern New South Wales, police said.
About 3pm on Sunday 13 September, police were called to a house following reports the body of a 79-year-old man had been found.
Officers visited the house again on Monday when they found the body of a 59-year-old man in a shed on the property.
Detectives arrested a 32-year-old man at a hospital in Grafton yesterday afternoon.
He was taken to Grafton police station where he was charged with two counts of murder and stealing a motor vehicle.
He was refused bail to appear before court today.
Home Affairs orders rapid review of government-wide cyber systems after OpenAI hack
OpenAI’s Medicare breach has prompted a government-wide assessment of cyber systems to bolster Australia’s public sector against further AI threats – deliberate or not.
Home affairs directed all government departments and agencies to undertake a “rapid” stocktake of legacy systems, to formulate risk management for legacy technology and to report their compliance back to the department.
The directive prioritises systems of government significance – the government’s critical systems – with a review due by the end of the year, while other systems will be assessed by March.
The acting home affairs minister, Richard Marles, said AI is “changing the environment in which we operate at extraordinary speed.”
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.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will be in Melbourne today with Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, to announce early works are beginning on the second stage of the long-awaited train line to Melbourne airport. More coming up.
A man has been charged with murder after the deaths of two men at Gurranang, about 25km north of Grafton in northern New South Wales, police said. More on that soon.
