DeepSeek AI First Data Leak Discovered By Researchers
News related to DeepSeek’s arrival in the AI space is emerging nonstop. However, some of it might not get you too excited. Cybersecurity experts have already warned about the potential privacy risks associated with using the platform. US officials have also raised concerns about dangers to national security. Now, the first data leak incident related to DeepSeek AI has been discovered.
The discovery comes from Wiz, a cybersecurity company based in New York. The Wiz team claims to have detected a dataset from DeepSeek that was easily accessible on the internet. The dataset included sensitive information and was exposed for a while without the company being aware of it.
Cybersecurity researchers discover a DeepSeek AI data leak
According to the report, the results of an analysis of DeepSeek’s infrastructure showed that more than a million lines of data were publicly available without any type of encryption. That means anyone who found the datasets could have extracted the information and used it for whatever they wanted.
The Wiz team says the dataset—accidentally exposed—included private information ranging from digital software keys to chat logs. The latter is the AI platform’s record of your conversations with the chatbot. DeepSeek is accessible both from the company’s website and as an app for Android and iOS, by the way.
DeepSeek took down the dataset “in less than an hour” after becoming aware of the breach, according to Ami Luttwak, Wiz’s chief technology officer. However, it’s unknown how many other people or teams may have had access to it before then. “This was so simple to find we believe we’re not the only ones who found it,” Luttwak added.
The virtually free nature of DeepSeek’s AI chatbot is encouraging many to try it out. It offers multiple features that require a monthly subscription fee to rivals like ChatGPT. That said, users should be cautious about the data they share with DeepSeek. Previously, concerns were primarily about the Chinese government’s potential access to data stored on the company’s servers or manipulations in the outputs. Now, the latest development raises questions about the firm’s user data protection protocols to the list.
