Czechia’s cybersecurity agency issued a formal warning this week detailing national security risks posed by the use of software provided by Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek, prompting the government to ban its products from employees’ devices.
DeepSeek made headlines in January when it released a surprisingly efficient large language model (LLM) that appeared to challenge the successes of models developed by AI companies in the United States at only a fraction of the cost.
Since then it has faced bans and removals from app stories in a number of countries over privacy and security concerns. The Czech Republic on Wednesday announced it too was banning the company’s software on official devices due to security risks.
The ban comes as NÚKIB, the National Cyber and Information Security Agency, warned it was “highly likely” that Beijing would attempt to utilize a range of domestic legislation in China to exploit DeepSeek’s products for intelligence purposes.
In a technical analysis of the DeepSeek mobile app, NÚKIB found it “almost certainly collects all the content that the user provides to both the chatbot and the associated services” and stores it in a manner that makes it accessible to Chinese government authorities.
The agency warned that the company’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, “was probably also involved in research on dual-use technologies” while at university and studying under a professor who “holds patents on, among other things, the operation of autonomous vehicles in battlespaces with unpredictable terrain.”
NÚKIB stressed that China’s National Security Law (2015), Counter-Espionage Law (2014), Company Law (2013) and National Intelligence Law (2017) provide a range of powers to the Chinese Communist Party to coerce DeepSeek into sharing sensitive data, even if the company were not already inclined to be cooperative.
The warning was issued “in light of the fact that the Czech Republic has long been a target of Chinese cyber state actors,” according to NÚKIB, which earlier this year accused the Chinese government of attempting to hack the Czech ministry of foreign affairs.
It follows a group of 10 countries (including the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, South Korea, India and Italy) issuing similar warnings about DeepSeek’s products, which the Czech analysis found store user data on servers in not only China but also on the territory of the Russian Federation. U.S. lawmakers want to ban government use of DeepSeek.
“Given the previous espionage activities, actions against the national interests of EU Member States and NATO Allies, the specifics of PRC legislation described above and the influence of the PRC government in Chinese companies, it is highly likely that the PRC will use the capabilities of DeepSeek´s products for intelligence activities,” NÚKIB said.
DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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