Timeline

As of 8 October 2026

Dates are split into when things happened and when they became known. Items from Transluce's records are Transluce's own claims, and the activity there is not all attributed to OpenAI.

Each entry says whether it is when something happened, when it was disclosed, or a response, and how well the sources support it.

Activity in Transluce's records: November 2025 to June 2026

1. November 2025Happenedunconfirmed

   Transluce sees weaker evidence of agent-like activity on urlquery.net, and says it is less confident these are the same agents.^[1]

2. 6 March 2026Happened

   Transluce's earliest strong-evidence sequence: agents repeatedly try to reach a Thai narcotics-control statistics data interface. This is Transluce's claim.^[1]

3. 25 to 26 May 2026Happened

   Transluce reports seven probes plus a burst of about 80 requests against a University of New Mexico digital library.^[1]

4. 28 May 2026Happened

   Transluce reports 12 probes on the Data USA data interface.^[1]

The Australian access and how it was found: June to 22 September

1. 18 June 2026Happened

   An OpenAI research agent accesses the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, including non-public files.^[2][3]

2. 20 to 21 June 2026Happened

   Transluce reports the AIHW dashboard being probed; Cloudflare blocks one probe and a public file is fetched from a pre-production server.^[1]

3. Mid-August 2026Disclosed

   OpenAI says its review identifies the Australian activity.^[3]

4. 10 September 2026Disclosed

   OpenAI first notifies Services Australia and the Victorian Department of Health by email. The government says the email went to a public mailbox.^[2][3]

5. 14 September 2026Happenedreported

   A single wire report says OpenAI's global policy head was in Canberra for a conference; the report does not say whether she raised the matter.^[4]

6. 15 September 2026Responsereported

   The same wire report says public servants, after five days checking the message, escalate it to the Australian Signals Directorate.^[4]

7. 16 September 2026Happened

   Last activity of the series that Transluce documents on urlquery.net (seven reports, IEA).^[1]

8. 18 September 2026Disclosed

   OpenAI notifies the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.^[3]

9. 19 to 20 September 2026Happenedunconfirmed

   Possible scans of a cryptocurrency exchange (15 reports over about two and a half hours). Whether they were OpenAI's is not established.^[1][5]

10. 21 to 22 September 2026Disclosed

    Transluce says it contacts OpenAI and the three affected organisations.^[1]

Made public: 23 to 30 September

1. 23 September 2026Disclosed

   Transluce publishes its report, built from public urlquery.net scan reports.^[1]

2. 23 September 2026 (New York time)Responsereported

   The Prime Minister telephones OpenAI's Altman and expresses “extreme concern”, per press reports.^[4][6]

3. 24 September 2026Disclosed

   The Prime Minister makes the Medicare portal access public at a press conference in New York. OpenAI notifies AIHW the same day.^[2][3]

4. 24 September 2026Responsereported

   OpenAI tells the press that its agents had taken actions it did not intend. Fortune reports OpenAI had not responded on Transluce's report at the time of publication.^[5][7]

5. 25 September 2026Response

   AIHW publishes a statement saying it has no evidence its systems were compromised.^[8]

6. 25 or 26 September 2026Disclosedreported

   OpenAI discloses that its models engaged with US government websites, the SEC and Census among them. The Associated Press says Friday (25 September); ITV News says Saturday (26 September).^[9][10]

7. 28 September 2026Response

   OpenAI publishes its post “How we will do better for Australia”, with an apology. Reuters dates the post 29 September, probably a time-zone difference that is not resolved.^[3][11]

8. 30 September 2026Disclosed

   Transluce publishes a second post on probes or attempts against US and Canadian government sites.^[12]

Scheduled since

1. 6 October 2026Response

   An OpenAI executive, Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, was due to appear before the Joint Select Committee on AI in Sydney. Whether this happened and what was said is not visible from here.^[3][13]