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Security concerns were cited over the popular new chatbot’s ban, but Chinese control of the app was not the issue.
The Australian federal government has announced a ban on the popular DeepSeek chatbot AI on all government devices.
The ban was signed into effect by the secretary of the Department of Home Affairs on 4 February after receiving advice from intelligence agencies that the app could represent a national security risk.
Government entities will be required to confirm that DeepSeek has been removed from all relevant devices and ensure that it is not reinstalled.
“The Albanese government is taking swift and decisive action to protect Australia’s national security and national interest,” Tony Burke, the Minister for Home Affairs, said.
“AI is a technology full of potential and opportunity – but the government will not hesitate to act when our agencies identify a national security risk.”
However, Burke added that DeepSeek’s country of origin – China – was not the direct cause of concern. Rather, it was the wider risk the chatbot posed to government assets.
That said, Dr Dana Mckay, senior lecturer in Innovative Interactive Technologies at RMIT University’s School of Computing Technologies, believes that fear of Chinese influence over the app is a concern.
“It is fair to ask whether DeepSeek is more dangerous to Australian national security than, say, OpenAI, which collects similar data: the difference is that OpenAI will only give data to government to comply with relevant laws, and this typically means where a crime may have been committed,” Dr Mckay said.
“Whether governments should be concerned about the level of data collected by commercial companies, such as OpenAI and Google, is still a significant question, but one that is separate to the national security concerns raised by China’s data sovereignty laws.”
By comparison, Andrew Grealy, head of Armis Labs at cyber security firm Armis, said that the intense competition between AI platforms could itself lead to security issues.
“The AI arms race, especially between major players like DeepSeek, Alibaba, ByteDance, and their US counterparts, is a double-edged sword. On one hand, rapid advancements drive innovation, increase accessibility, and push the boundaries of AI capabilities. On the other, the intense competition often prioritises speed over security, governance, and long-term sustainability,” Grealy said.
“For companies and consumers, the allure of cutting-edge AI models – especially open-source ones – comes with significant trade-offs. Open-source models provide transparency and adaptability but also introduce security risks, such as data leakage, adversarial manipulation, and lack of robust safeguards against misuse. Without rigorous security vetting, organisations leveraging these models may find themselves in a precarious position, exposing sensitive data or enabling unintended consequences.”
The federal government ban follows the NSW Department of Customer Service telling its staff last month that access to the app would be blocked.
“The Department of Customer Service regularly reviews technology for compliance with its policies and procedures and has taken a precautionary approach to restrict corporate access to DeepSeek AI, consistent with the approach taken for many new and emerging applications, systems and services,” a spokesperson for the Department of Customer Service told Cyber Daily this week.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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