US investigates national security implications of DeepSeek after cyberattacks
DeepSeek, a Chinese AI application, temporarily restricted new user registrations following large-scale cyberattacks that caused extended service outages. The US National Security Council opened an investigation into the national security implications of the DeepSeek R-1 model.
What happened
DeepSeek R-1, a Chinese AI application, experienced large-scale malicious attacks starting on 27 January 2025.
The company temporarily restricted new user registrations to ensure service continuity, though existing users could log in normally. The service suffered extended outages, including more than one hour on 27 January, five minutes on 28 January, and over nine hours by 29 January.
Reported impact
DeepSeek's web services and application programming interfaces operated with degraded performance during the attacks.
The attacks caused the company to investigate and limit its capacity to onboard new users.
Index analysis
The US National Security Council opened an investigation into the national security implications of DeepSeek R-1.
US Presidential Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the President regarded DeepSeek's advances and low-cost model as a 'wake-up call' for the US AI industry.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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