Chinese ChatGPT Contender ‘DeepSeek’ Halts Registration After Cyberattack

Popular Chinese AI platform ‘DeepSeek’ has halted registrations after a ‘large-scale’ cyberattack targeting the company.

DeepSeek’s new AI platform gains traction

Chinese company DeepSeek created an AI platform to compete against OpenAI’s better-known chatbot, offering significant advancements that helped it gain traction over the past week.

The platform’s performance, versatility, low costs, and innovative architecture are reportedly among its most attractive perks.

These features have quickly turned the AI-fueled service into the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store in various countries, outshining ChatGPT on Monday.

’Large-scale’ cyberattack hits DeepSeek

DeepSeek’s sudden burst in popularity seems to have attracted unwanted attention, as threat actors recently launched what the company described as a “large-scale malicious attack” against its services.

“Due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek's services, we are temporarily limiting registrations to ensure continued service,” reads an announcement on DeepSeek’s website. “Existing users can log in as usual. Thanks for your understanding and support.”

Although the company left out details about the attack and its origin, many suspect DeepSeek suffered a massive DDoS attack. In response, the company implemented a fix and is currently investigating the matter.

Experts advise users to exercise caution when interacting with AI assistants in their infancy, as they are prone to vulnerabilities. According to recent reports, security researchers have already managed to jailbreak the model, tricking it into generating malicious outputs.

Unfortunately, jailbreak-proneness is a selling point of artificial intelligence assistants, especially for ill-intentioned actors.

However, its potential to do harm is not DeepSeek’s only issue. Considering that the service is operated by a Chinese company, users should be aware that their data may be collected and shared with authorities in the country.

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