Blistering Australian warning from CyberCX to ban China’s DeepSeek

A major Australian cyber security company has launched a blistering attack, saying the Chinese owned app DeepSeek must be banned from government devices.

A Chinese owned app that has challenged the dominance of ChatGPT must be banned from Australian government devices, a major Australian cyber security company has warned.

CyberCX put out a note to its clients on Friday, warning that DeepSeek “collects data” for China’s ruling party, urging companies and government departments to immediately ban its use.

DeepSeek has become one of the most popular apps in Apple’s app store and on Google Play, with its success prompting a $1 trillion dollar share market meltdown this week.

Katherine Mansted, Executive Director of CyberCX Intelligence, said on Friday that government departments should ban staff from downloading DeepSeek.

“It’s a no-brainer that it should not be allowed to operate on government devices,” she told News Corp.

“DeepSeek is an AI app sending sensitive information straight off to China.”

Ms Mansted, who is based in Canberra, said the Chinese government was heavily investing in technology because it saw how it could be used to support the party’s policies.

“There’s a reason these things are so cheap; the Chinese government invests heavily in technology because it sees the value it can provide from a strategic, military and intelligence perspective,” she said.

The DeepSeek app was “rewriting Australian public opinion and Australian political views because that’s what the Chinese government wants,” Ms Mansted added.

Her comments come in addition to CyberCX’s blistering note issued to clients on Friday warning about the app.

The DeepSeek Chatbot app, developed in China, was downloaded from the Apple app store significantly more times than the US-developed ChatGPT from Open AI, and wiped billions off the global tech market.

DeepSeek should be banned from government devices, and power, water, energy and telecommunications companies in Australia, CyberCX said.

“All organisations, especially critical infrastructure organisations, democratic institutions and organisations storing or processing commercially sensitive or personal information should strongly consider at least temporarily restricting access to the DeepSeek AI Assistant app,” the note warned.

The warning comes after the United States banned TikTok because it was Chinese owned, however President Donald Trump has given the company extra time to find an American buyer.

CyberCX warned the threat from DeepSeek was higher than TikTok because it only complied with Chinese laws on privacy.

DeepSeek caused a splash on its launch amid claims that it was developed for only $6 million, compared with the hundreds of millions spent developing market leader ChatGPT.

It also threatened the dominance of super fast chip maker Nvidia.

The app, like ChatGPT, provides answers to questions and summarises major events or issues in the news.

However, an analysis of DeepSeek’s answers showed a bias to the Chinese Communist Party, particularly around political events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre where pro-democracy demonstrators were met with army tanks.

“For example, when we prompted the app to describe the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, the model returned the refusal text “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else,” the CyberCX note said.

“However, when we prompted the app to describe the 2021 January 6 Capitol Riots, the model returned a detailed, 10 paragraph response that concluded that the events raise questions about the “future of American democracy”.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week warned Australian companies to be cautious about downloading the app.

Originally published as Blistering Australian warning from CyberCX to ban China’s DeepSeek