Chinese Startup DeepSeek Reports "Large-Scale" Cyberattacks

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has reported a "large-scale malicious attack" on its services, forcing the company to temporarily halt new user registrations. The attack coincided with the rapid rise of DeepSeek’s AI assistant app, which recently surpassed ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on Apple's App Store.

The company confirmed the cyberattack on its status page, stating, "Due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek's services, we are temporarily limiting registrations to ensure continued service." Existing users were still able to access the platform as usual.

Although DeepSeek has not provided details on the nature of the cyberattack, cybersecurity experts suspect it was a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, which floods a website with excessive traffic to overwhelm its servers. Some industry observers believe the attack could be linked to DeepSeek's sudden success, with speculation ranging from corporate rivalry to deliberate sabotage.

Online discussions referenced by Bleeping Computer have suggested that DeepSeek's growing influence may have attracted competitors' attention or even state-backed interference. However, some social media users believe the company’s rapid surge in popularity, rather than an actual attack, might have caused the disruption.

DeepSeek, founded in 2023 in Hangzhou, China, gained significant attention after releasing an advanced AI language model that is reportedly capable of matching, or even surpassing, similar models from US-based companies like OpenAI.

DeepSeek’s cost-efficient model has made waves in the AI industry, mainly because it was developed using fewer resources than its American competitors. This success has led to concerns among US tech firms, especially as DeepSeek’s rapid growth has coincided with a stock market drop among AI-related companies.

Adding to security concerns, cybersecurity firm KELA had found vulnerabilities in DeepSeek’s AI model, which allowed researchers to bypass restrictions and generate harmful content. KELA’s report stated that the AI model was significantly more vulnerable than OpenAI’s ChatGPT, raising additional concerns about data security and misuse.

The attack has fueled broader discussions about the AI race between China and the US, with some American investors calling it an "AI Sputnik moment." According to The Guardian, US President Donald Trump warned that DeepSeek’s emergence should be a “wake-up call” for American companies. The situation remains fluid, with DeepSeek yet to respond to media inquiries about the attack and its long-term impact.