DeepSeek AI Under Cyberattack: US-China Tensions Escalate in AI Sector

DeepSeek cyberattack caused by US hackers, Chinese media claims

The logo of Deepseek is displayed on a smartphone screen on January 27, 2025 in Suqian, Jiangsu Province of China. China's AI start-up DeepSeek has faced a significant cyberattack, which is believed to have originated from the United States. According to China's state broadcaster CCTV, the attack began on January 3 and reached its peak on Monday and Tuesday, with a major brute-force effort coming from U.S.-based IP addresses. The cyberattack targeted DeepSeek, which had recently launched an AI assistant model designed to operate at a lower cost compared to existing U.S. counterparts. The cyberattack escalated quickly, raising concerns about the security of DeepSeek's operations and the broader impact on China's growing AI industry.

US-China AI war out in the open? Communist Party blames American hackers for cyberattack on DeepSeek servers, claims IP addresses were from US

China's AI startup DeepSeek AI has reportedly suffered a major cyberattack recently, and this brute force attack has now reached its peak, says China's state broadcaster. Meanwhile, China's Communist Party has blamed American hackers for this attack on DeepSeek's serversThe Chinese Communist Party has recently claimed that the ongoing cyberattacks on DeepSeek servers are the handiwork of American hackers, who have launched multiple brute-force attacks on the China-based startup's servers for quite some time now. According to China's state broadcaster CCTV, this attack has now taken a wild turn, and IP addresses of the origin of these hacks have been traced to belonging from the US, according to an Interesting Engineering report. All of this comes amid claims by OpenAI and Microsoft that DeepSeek stole its proprietary data from their AI model to train DeepSeek R1 and V3, which were launched recently and have gained major traction ever since then. Microsoft's security researchers even claim that they have evidence of this malicious practice by individuals who are linked with the China-based startup. This cyberattack is mainly focused on DeepSeek's servers, the company that is responsible for introducing the latest and powerful AI models that have been developed at lower costs in comparison to its American competitors like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and others. The Chinese Communist Party is now trying to pin the blame on American hackers, based on alleged evidence that the IP addresses of the hacks' origins are all based in the US, according to Interesting Engineering's report. The hacking attempt on DeepSeek's servers came in multiple layers, that started off with a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, followed by other brute-force attempts. Has DeepSeek AI been hacked? DeepSeek AI has faced multiple brute force attempts as well as Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks through January. Has DeepSeek AI launched its AI model? Yes, DeepSeek AI's R1 and V3 models are launched and ready to use.