South Korea's Ministry of Industry has temporarily banned employee access to Chinese AI app DeepSeek due to security concerns.
Already yesterday, the government issued a statement calling on ministries and organizations to be cautious about using generative AI services at work (including DeepSeek and ChatGPT).
State-owned Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power said it has blocked the use of artificial intelligence services for several days.
See also: Cybercriminals use DeepSeek & Alibaba's LLM
It is said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also restricted access to DeepSeek to computers connected to external networks.
The country's information privacy watchdog plans to question DeepSeek about how it handles users' personal information.
Korean tech companies are now cautious about using generative AI. Tech giant Kakao Corp has told its employees not to use DeepSeek due to security concerns. SK Hynix, which makes AI chips, has restricted access to generative AI services. Naveralso said employees should not use such services that store data outside the company.
DeepSeek became particularly popular last month when it unveiled a chatbot that could compete with similar US technologies, with much lower training costs (according to the company's claims).
See also: Infostealer malware impersonates DeepSeek tools on PyPI
According to app analytics firm Sensor Tower, the Chinese app's rapid success has caused a stir in Silicon Valley as it questions US dominance in the field of artificial intelligence. In fact, DeepSeek managed to score higher than ChatGPT in the US App Store.
More and more countries are targeting DeepSeek
Countries such as Australia and Italy have placed restrictions on the use of DeepSeek, citing national security risks. Yesterday, Australia banned the use of the Chinese AI app on government devices. Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbottalso imposed a ban on the use of DeepSeek on government-issued devices.
India's finance ministry has its employees to avoid using artificial intelligence also asked (AI) tools, including ChatGPT and DeepSeek, for official work, the government said, saying the apps could pose a security risk to government documents and data.
See also: Wiz: DeepSeek data found exposed online
The decisions by the above countries serve as a reminder that data privacy remains a pressing issue for governments around the world. In recent years, there has been an increase in cyberattacks targeting government agencies, and the use of foreign technologies on official devices is a growing concern. This is because such applications may be designed to collect sensitive information and transmit it back to their countries, raising national security concerns.
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Security experts have warned that anyone working in confidential or national security fields should be aware that everything entered into chatbots is retained and analyzed by the developers of these tools.
Source: www.straitstimes.com
