Taiwan Bans DeepSeek AI in Government Agencies, Citing National Security Concerns

Taiwan bans government agencies from using DeepSeek

Taiwan has banned workers in the public sector and at key infrastructure facilities from using DeepSeek, saying it was a Chinese product and could endanger national security. DeepSeek launched its R1 chatbot last month, claiming it matches the capacity of artificial intelligence pace-setters in the United States for a fraction of the investment. Countries including South Korea, Ireland, France, Australia and Italy have raised questions about the Chinese AI startup's data practices. Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs said Friday all government agencies and critical infrastructure should not use DeepSeek because it "endangers national information security". "DeepSeek AI service is a Chinese product," the ministry said in a statement. "Its operation involves cross-border transmission and information leakage and other information security concerns." Taiwan has long accused China of using "gray zone" tactics -- actions that fall short of an act of war -- against the island, including cyberattacks, as Beijing presses its claims of sovereignty over the island. Since 2019, Taiwan has banned government agencies from using information and communication technology products and services that pose a threat to "national information security". DeepSeek sparked panic on Wall Street this week with its powerful new chatbot that is thought to have matched US companies in its abilities but at a fraction of the cost. That's despite a strict US regime prohibiting Chinese firms from accessing the kinds of advanced chips needed to power the massive learning models used to develop AI. Taiwan's restriction came as data watchdogs in South Korea and Ireland said they would ask DeepSeek to clarify how it manages users' personal information. Earlier this week, Italy launched an investigation into the R1 model and blocked it from processing Italian users' data.

China's DeepSeek banned by several countries out of censorship fear

Several governments, including the U.S., Taiwan and Australia, have banned the use of China's AI software DeepSeek on official devices. Analysts say these restrictions are justified, as tests show DeepSeek not only collects excessive user data but also filters sensitive topics and promotes Chinese government narratives more aggressively than Baidu and WeChat. This raises concern that it could become a powerful tool for controlling speech and public opinion.

Taiwan Bans DeepSeek AI Over National Security Concerns, Citing Data Leakage Risks

Taiwan has become the latest country to ban government agencies from using Chinese startup DeepSeek's Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform, citing security risks. "Government agencies and critical infrastructure should not use DeepSeek, because it endangers national information security," according to a statement released by Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs, per Radio Free Asia. "DeepSeek AI service is a Chinese product. Its operation involves cross-border transmission, and information leakage and other information security concerns." DeepSeek's Chinese origins have prompted authorities from various countries to look into the service's use of personal data. Last week, it was blocked in Italy, citing a lack of information regarding its data handling practices. Several companies have also prohibited access to the chatbot over similar risks. The chatbot has captured much of the mainstream attention over the past few weeks for the fact that it's open source and is as capable as other current leading models, but built at a fraction of the cost of its peers. But the large language models (LLMs) powering the platform have also been found to be susceptible to various jailbreak techniques, a persistent concern in such products, not to mention drawing attention for censoring responses to topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese government. The popularity of DeepSeek has also led to it being targeted by "large-scale malicious attacks," with NSFOCUS revealing that it detected three waves of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks aimed at its API interface between January 25 and 27, 2025. "The average attack duration was 35 minutes," it said. "Attack methods mainly include NTP reflection attack and memcached reflection attack." It further said the DeepSeek chatbot system was targeted twice by DDoS attacks on January 20, the day on which it launched its reasoning model DeepSeek-R1, and 25 averaged around one-hour using methods like NTP reflection attack and SSDP reflection attack. The sustained activity primarily originated from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, the threat intelligence firm added, describing it as a "well-planned and organized attack." Malicious actors have also capitalized on the buzz surrounding DeepSeek to publish bogus packages on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that are designed to steal sensitive information from developer systems. In an ironic twist, there are indications that the Python script was written with the help of an AI assistant. The packages, named deepseeek and deepseekai, masqueraded as a Python API client for DeepSeek and were downloaded at least 222 times prior to them being taken down on January 29, 2025. A majority of the downloads came from the U.S., China, Russia, Hong Kong, and Germany. "Functions used in these packages are designed to collect user and computer data and steal environment variables," Russian cybersecurity company Positive Technologies said. "The author of the two packages used Pipedream, an integration platform for developers, as the command-and-control server that receives stolen data." The development comes as the Artificial Intelligence Act went into effect in the European Union starting February 2, 2025, banning AI applications and systems that pose an unacceptable risk and subjecting high-risk applications to specific legal requirements. In a related move, the U.K. government has announced a new AI Code of Practice that aims to secure AI systems against hacking and sabotage through methods that include security risks from data poisoning, model obfuscation, and indirect prompt injection, as well as ensure they are being developed in a secure manner. Meta, for its part, has outlined its Frontier AI Framework, noting that it will stop the development of AI models that are assessed to have reached a critical risk threshold and cannot be mitigated. Some of the cybersecurity-related scenarios highlighted include - The risk that AI systems could be weaponized for malicious ends is not theoretical. Last week, Google's Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) disclosed that over 57 distinct threat actors with ties to China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia have attempted to use Gemini to enable and scale their operations. Threat actors have also been observed attempting to jailbreak AI models in an effort to bypass their safety and ethical controls. A kind of adversarial attack, it's designed to induce a model into producing an output that it has been explicitly trained not to, such as creating malware or spelling out instructions for making a bomb. The ongoing concerns posed by jailbreak attacks have led AI company Anthropic to devise a new line of defense called Constitutional Classifiers that it says can safeguard models against universal jailbreaks. "These Constitutional Classifiers are input and output classifiers trained on synthetically generated data that filter the overwhelming majority of jailbreaks with minimal over-refusals and without incurring a large compute overhead," the company said Monday.

Taiwan bans government agencies from using DeepSeek

The Deepseek logo and words reading "Artificial Intelligence AI" are seen in this illustration taken, Jan. 29. Reuters-Yonhap Taiwan has banned workers in the public sector and at key infrastructure facilities from using DeepSeek, saying it was a Chinese product and could endanger national security. DeepSeek launched its R1 chatbot last month, claiming it matches the capacity of artificial intelligence pace-setters in the United States for a fraction of the investment. Countries including Korea, Ireland, France, Australia and Italy have raised questions about the Chinese AI startup's data practices. Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs said Friday all government agencies and critical infrastructure should not use DeepSeek because it "endangers national information security." Korea to look into China's DeepSeek AI service over data privacy concerns 2025-01-31 17:10 | Society Trump, Nvidia CEO discuss DeepSeek, AI chip exports during meeting: source 2025-02-01 14:50 | World "DeepSeek AI service is a Chinese product," the ministry said in a statement. "Its operation involves cross-border transmission and information leakage and other information security concerns." Taiwan has long accused China of using "grey zone" tactics -- actions that fall short of an act of war -- against the island, including cyberattacks, as Beijing presses its claims of sovereignty over the island. Since 2019, Taiwan has banned government agencies from using information and communication technology products and services that pose a threat to "national information security." DeepSeek sparked panic on Wall Street this week with its powerful new chatbot that is thought to have matched US companies in its abilities but at a fraction of the cost. That's despite a strict U.S. regime prohibiting Chinese firms from accessing the kinds of advanced chips needed to power the massive learning models used to develop AI. Taiwan's restriction came as data watchdogs in Korea and Ireland said they would ask DeepSeek to clarify how it manages users' personal information. Earlier this week, Italy launched an investigation into the R1 model and blocked it from processing Italian users' data. (AFP)

Taiwan bans government departments from using DeepSeek AI

TAIPEI, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Taiwan on Monday banned government departments from using Chinese startup DeepSeek's artificial intelligence (AI) service as it was a security risk, toughening language from last week which said it should not be used. Democratically governed Taiwan has long been wary of Chinese technology given Beijing's sovereignty claims over the island and its military and political threats against the government in Taipei. During a cabinet meeting, Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said DeepSeek was banned from use in all government agencies "to ensure the country's information security", his office said in a statement. There were also concerns about censorship on DeepSeek and the risk of data ending up in China, the statement said. Taiwan's digital ministry had said on Friday that government departments should not use DeepSeek, but did not specifically say it was banned. Authorities in South Korea, France, Italy and Ireland and other countries have also been looking into DeepSeek's use of personal data. Reporting by Ben Blanchard Editing by Bernadette Baum Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence

Taiwan Bans Government Departments From Using DeepSeek AI

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan on Monday banned government departments from using Chinese startup DeepSeek's artificial intelligence (AI) service as it was a security risk, toughening language from last week which said it should not be used. Democratically governed Taiwan has long been wary of Chinese technology given Beijing's sovereignty claims over the island and its military and political threats against the government in Taipei. During a cabinet meeting, Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said DeepSeek was banned from use in all government agencies "to ensure the country's information security", his office said in a statement. There were also concerns about censorship on DeepSeek and the risk of data ending up in China, the statement said. Taiwan's digital ministry had said on Friday that government departments should not use DeepSeek, but did not specifically say it was banned. Authorities in South Korea, France, Italy and Ireland and other countries have also been looking into DeepSeek's use of personal data. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Taiwan bans government departments from using DeepSeek AI

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan on Monday banned government departments from using Chinese startup DeepSeek's artificial intelligence (AI) service as it was a security risk, toughening language from last week which said it should not be used. Democratically governed Taiwan has long been wary of Chinese technology given Beijing's sovereignty claims over the island and its military and political threats against the government in Taipei. During a cabinet meeting, Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said DeepSeek was banned from use in all government agencies "to ensure the country's information security", his office said in a statement. There were also concerns about censorship on DeepSeek and the risk of data ending up in China, the statement said. Taiwan's digital ministry had said on Friday that government departments should not use DeepSeek, but did not specifically say it was banned. Authorities in South Korea, France, Italy and Ireland and other countries have also been looking into DeepSeek's use of personal data. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Taiwan Says Government Departments Should Not Use DeepSeek, Citing Security Concerns

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's digital ministry said on Friday that government departments should not use Chinese startup DeepSeek's artificial intelligence (AI) service, saying that as the product is from China it represents a security concern. Democratically-governed Taiwan has long been wary of Chinese tech given Beijing's sovereignty claims over the island and its military and political threats against the government in Taipei. In a statement, Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs said that government departments are not allowed to use DeepSeek's AI service to "prevent information security risks". "DeepSeek's AI service is a Chinese product, and its operation involves cross-border transmission and information leakage and other information security concerns, and is a product that jeopardises the country's information security," the ministry said. The ministry will continue to keep abreast of relevant technological developments and make "timely adjustments" to its information security policies in order to safeguard security, it added. Earlier on Friday, South Korea's information privacy watchdog said it plans to ask DeepSeek about how the personal information of users is managed. Authorities in France, Italy and Ireland and other countries have also been looking into DeepSeek's use of personal data. By Monday, DeepSeek's free AI assistant had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple's app store and global investors dumped U.S. tech stocks, wiping $593 billion off chipmaker Nvidia's market value in a record one-day loss for any company on Wall Street. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Frances Kerry)

China cries foul over India, several countries imposing curbs on DeepSeek

Several countries, including India, have restricted the use of Chinese AI tool DeepSeek, citing data confidentiality concerns. China criticized these actions as politicizing trade and technology issues and emphasized its commitment to protecting the interests of its companies. DeepSeek's low-cost AI model has garnered global attention.After several countries, including India, clamped restrictions on officials accessing the newly-released Chinese AI tool DeepSeek, China on Thursday said such actions amounted to politicisation of trade and tech issues and vowed to protect the interests of its firms. China has all along opposed moves to overstretch the concept of national security or politicise trade and tech issues, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a media briefing here while replying to a question on several countries either banning the use of DeepSeek or restricting its use by officials over suspicions of data leaks. "We have never asked and will never ask any company or individual to collect or store data against laws," Guo said, referring to apprehensions concerning China's 2017 national intelligence law which gave the Chinese government powers over private companies. "China has all along opposed moves to overstretch the concept of national security or politicise trade and tech issues. We will firmly protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies," Guo said. India's Finance Ministry has directed its officers not to download or use AI tools and apps such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek in office computers and devices, saying they pose confidentiality risks to data and documents. In a communication last month to all its departments, the ministry said AI tools and AI apps in office devices may be strictly avoided. "It has been determined that AI tools and AI apps (such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek etc) in the office computers and devices pose risks for confidentiality of government data and documents," the Department of Expenditure under the ministry said in a note on January 29. South Korea has blocked its government departments from accessing DeepSeek. According to media reports, Italy, Australia, the US and Japan also blocked access to DeepSeek. DeepSeek's latest AI offering has drawn global attention for its low-cost model - at just USD 6 million against global average of billions of dollars. Further, DeepSeek's R1 used a fraction of compute power as compared to established AI models like ChatGPT. DeepSeek overtook ChatGPT as the top-ranked free app on Apple's Appstore, as the US tech industry - that has long-justified injecting billions of dollars into AI investments - watched in sheer disbelief last week.

Taiwan says government departments should not use DeepSeek, citing security concerns

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's digital ministry said on Friday that government departments should not use Chinese startup DeepSeek's artificial intelligence (AI) service, saying that as the product is from China it represents a security concern. Democratically-governed Taiwan has long been wary of Chinese tech given Beijing's sovereignty claims over the island and its military and political threats against the government in Taipei. In a statement, Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs said that government departments are not allowed to use DeepSeek's AI service to "prevent information security risks". "DeepSeek's AI service is a Chinese product, and its operation involves cross-border transmission and information leakage and other information security concerns, and is a product that jeopardises the country's information security," the ministry said. The ministry will continue to keep abreast of relevant technological developments and make "timely adjustments" to its information security policies in order to safeguard security, it added. Earlier on Friday, South Korea's information privacy watchdog said it plans to ask DeepSeek about how the personal information of users is managed. Authorities in France, Italy and Ireland and other countries have also been looking into DeepSeek's use of personal data. By Monday, DeepSeek's free AI assistant had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple's app store and global investors dumped U.S. tech stocks, wiping $593 billion off chipmaker Nvidia's market value in a record one-day loss for any company on Wall Street. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Taiwan Bars All Public Agencies From Using DeepSeek AI Services

Taiwan barred all of its government agencies and critical infrastructure service providers from using Chinese artificial-intelligence startup DeepSeek's technology, citing security concerns. "Its operation involves security concerns such as cross-border transmission and information leakage," the self-governing island's Ministry of Digital Affairs said in a statement on Friday.