The launch of deepsek Prompted the Familiar Wave of Ethical Debates that Now Accompany The Launch of Any Large Language Model (LLM). Questions about data usage, transparency, and bias are well covered, but when the technology originates from China, they are accessible by geopolitical and ethical conserns. As we've seen with TiktokConcerns Around Data Handling Quickly Escalate Into Fears of State Influence, National Security Risks and Industrial Espionage.
These fears aren't without foundation. The accelerating ai arms race between the US and China has made ai a core pillar of national strategy. Both Nations now View Leading The AI Race as an Economic and Technological Priority. The result is a world in all the every breakthrough model, whether American, chinese or otherwise, is immedialyly scrutinized not just for it for it for it Sets in Motion.
Data security in the face of ai
Big tech companies in the us like open ai and anthropic have come under justifiable scrutiny over how they gather and process data but the launch of Deepsek introduced an additional Level of Ravel of Ravl of Rav China has a well-documented history of alleged state-sponsored corporate espionage and intellectual property theft-Including the December Hack of the Us Treasury DepartmentWhich the US attributed to chinese-backed hackers.
For Cisos and Security Leaders, The Arrival of Another Powerful Ai Model with Potential Ties to the Chinese State Should Should Trigger a Renewed Focus on the Security of Their Own Data, Particularly WHEN TOMES to Protecting Intellectual Property and the Sensitive Information that underpins Competitive Advantage.
However, the real concern isn't just what Deepsek can do today, but how it might be trained tomorrow. Llms are trained on vast datasets scraped from every publicly accessible source imaginable. But publicly available data alone won't the demand for more powerful models. There is a growing risk Large-scale scraping operations that operate in legal green area,
This is not a distant possibility. The practice of data hoarding – Storing encrypted data today with the intenses of decrypting it in the future, is already well docuned in the industry. For cisos, that means the threat landscape isn’t only limited to today's vulnerabilityes. Even encrypted data that's safely stored today could become accessible within the lifespan of long-term business or government strategies.
How Cisos can mitigate the risk
The emergence of deepseek services as a timely reminder for cisos to revisit how their organizations think about data protection in the context of state-level threats. It starts with gaining full visibility into what data they hold, where it residences and who can access it.
However, Visibility and Control are only part of the solution. The technologies used to safeguard data also need to evolve. Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (Pets), some of which are quantum resilient, should be on the radar of any forward-thinking security team. At the same time, Organisations Should Push Their Technology Suppliers to Adopt Stronger Encryption Measures that will Remain Resilant, Especially With the People's In -In Incoming AROMINT Market and, in the longer term, a possible post-quantum era.
There is also a broader cultural shift required. Companies must recognize that threats to data security are no longer just the work of isolated hackers or financially-motivated cyber criminals. Data has become a risk asset in our Fried Geopolitical Landscape. As the AI Arms Race Continues to Intensify, Every Scrap of Proprityary Data, From Design Files to Customer Behavior Behavior Patterns, Takes on New Strategic Value, Not Just Just for Competitors, Butt For Nation States with the resources to systematically exploit it.
The Arrival of Deepsek is Simply The Latest Reminder That The Boundaries Between Technological Innovation, Economic Competition and Geopolitics have all but disapped. For cisos, that means the conversation about protecting data needs to evolve – one that ackaneowledges data as not just a business asset, but a target in a broader contest for ecoPolitic and geopolitic quarter.
Dr nick new is ceo at Optalysys, With a Phd in optical pattern recording from cambridge, nick has a strong foundation in optical technology. At optalysys, he is pioneering advancements in silicon photos and fhe.