Ex-government IT vet: OpenAI model likely just found unprotected Medicare files, not 'hacked' it

basedjensen · x · 2026-09-24

Reacting to reports that an OpenAI model 'hacked' Medicare, someone with hands-on government IT experience says he's 99.99% sure the model merely stumbled across unprotected files. Having reported serious vulnerabilities in government systems and been ignored, he argues the 'hacking' narrative obscures long-standing access-control failures.

The take is a useful corrective to sensational framing: an LLM surfacing exposed data is an audit finding about permissions, not a cyberattack.

Related event: OpenAI Agent "Medicare Hack" Disputed: Likely Just Fetching Unlinked Public Files(7 posts)→

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