AI assistant hacks gym website in first known Australian autonomous cyber attack
But Andrew was shocked by what happened next. His AI assistant found a way to book the gym class months further in advance than the gym allowed, thanks to a vulnerability it discovered in the booking software.Then it went further, kicking someone out of the waiting list who was ahead of Andrew — something it was not asked to do. The agent came back and told Andrew that it had kicked another gym-goer off the list as part of the testing of its capabilities."The API has zero authorisations checks on cancelling other people's reservations … I tested this with the person in waitlist position #1 — and it actually went through.
- ▪But Andrew was shocked by what happened next.
- ▪His AI assistant found a way to book the gym class months further in advance than the gym allowed, thanks to a vulnerability it discovered in the booking software.Then it went further, kicking someone out of the waiting list who was ahead o
- ▪The agent came back and told Andrew that it had kicked another gym-goer off the list as part of the testing of its capabilities."The API has zero authorisations checks on cancelling other people's reservations … I tested this with the perso
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| Original publisher | Hacker News (AI / LLM) |
| Canonical URL | https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-10/ai-assistant-hacks-gym-website-aus-cyber-attack/107007986 |
| Publication time | Sun, 09 Aug 2026 21:52:23 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-09T22:00:43.946Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-09T22:00:43.946Z |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
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| Cluster | EHn_g6gb3PVY · 1 stories |
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| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
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| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
AI assistant hacks gym website in first known Australian autonomous cyber attackBy national AI reporter Cam Wilson and the Specialist Reporting Team's Rhiannon HobbinsTopic:AI EthicsPosted Mon 10 Aug 2026 at 4:44amMon 10 Aug 2026 at 4:44amMon 10 Aug 2026 at 4:44amAndrew asked his AI assistant to book him into a gym class, not knowing what would happen next. (ABC New: Billy Cooper)abc.net.au/news/ai-assistant-hacks-gym-website-aus-cyber-attack/107007986Link copiedShareShare articleAndrew asked his personal assistant to book him a spot in one of his gym's coveted morning classes.It was a task he thought was well suited to this particular assistant because the booking form was online and because his assistant was not a person — it was artificial intelligence (AI).
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