A rogue artificial intelligence agent attempted to hack a Canadian government website earlier this year, an incident report by an AI research group revealed.
Two attempted hacks took place, one on May 28 and another on June 9 on a Canadian government website, the report by Transluce, an independent, nonprofit research lab dedicated to public oversight of AI, said on Wednesday evening.
The group observed 899 requests hitting the “collection-search” service of Library and Archives Canada, the group said, calling the attempted hack “rudimentary.”
The requests were associated with retrieving data on divorce records in Canada between 1905 and 1911.
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Transluce said it informed the Canadian government on Monday, Sept. 28, following which the Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity issued a statement on Tuesday.
“We are aware of reports identifying suspicious activity, including suspected AI agent activity, targeting publicly accessible websites, such as the Government of Canada. There is no indication that government systems have been compromised at this time,” a statement from Canadian Centre for Cyber Security read.
It is not yet clear whose AI agent attempted the hack, but the report suggested the “tactic” are similar to those that OpenAI has used in previous hacks.
“We do not confidently attribute these attempts to OpenAI, but they exhibit tactics consistent with prior observed agent activity that we have attributed to OpenAI in a similar timeframe,” Transluce said.
The group added, however, that they “do not believe that these probes were successful.”
The report also detailed the hacks of several U.S. federal and state government websites, including a failed attempt on the U.S. Department of Education.
An OpenAI agent hacked an Australian government website in June and targeted Medicare, Australia’s publicly funded universal health insurance plan, Australia’s prime minister said last month.
More to come
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