“DeepSeek has emerged as a cheap, open-source AI rival to the seemingly indomitable US models. It could enable Chinese technology to become enmeshed in global systems, perhaps even in critical infrastructure.”
This is the suggestion of The Strategist, a publication of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (“In case we forgot, Typhoon attacks remind us of China’s cyber capability—and intent,” March 5, 2025).
Whether DeepSeek was as cheap to make as claimed has been disputed, but we can assume that given the backing of the Chinese government, the ratio of admitted to unadmitted costs probably doesn’t much matter.
In any case, “Australians [and the rest of us] need to understand the cyber threat from China.”
DeepSeek arrived “just weeks after the Biden administration stunningly admitted on its way out of office that Chinese Communist Party hackers were targeting not just political and military systems but also civilian networks such as water and health. The hackers could shut down US ports, power grids and other critical infrastructure.”
Chinese hackers have stealthily embedded themselves in US critical infrastructure, potentially enabling sabotage, or the coercive threat of sabotage, to extract something Beijing wants. The two main perpetrators of these operations are Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon. The Chinese government backs both.
Salt Typhoon’s infiltration of at least nine US telecom networks has enabled CCP-sponsored hackers to geolocate individuals and record phone calls, directly threatening personal privacy and national security. This devastating counterintelligence failure includes the identification of individuals that US agencies suspect are agents working for China. It also enables CCP surveillance and coercion of US nationals and Chinese dissidents.
If anything, Volt Typhoon poses a greater threat, with covert access to critical infrastructure networks. Each reinforces the dangers of the other….
We must avoid the traps China sets as it seeks global information dominance. First, we can’t be complacent…. Second, we must reject the viewpoint that ‘everyone spies so it would be hypocritical to condemn China’, as it is a false moral equivalence. Third, we must avoid arguing that there isn’t present threat just because Beijing doesn’t have the intent to go to war today. This wishful thinking is a dangerous mistake. If we fall into these traps, we present Beijing with more time and render ourselves incapable of advancing our interests.
DeepSeek, with its propaganda and data-foraging, may be more of the same in some respect but not on the order of a Typhoon assault.
The Strategist doesn’t really say how DeepSeek “could enable Chinese technology to become enmeshed in global systems” in such a way as to shut down infrastructure. Perhaps the information it sends China from iPhones or computers would help China to identify the systems that hackers could target with Typhoon assaults. Is that it? But it doesn’t look as if the Typhoons needed the help.
Also see: StoptheCCP.org: “How Did DeepSeek Deep-Six the Chinese and American Competition (If It Did)?”
StoptheCCP.org: “How to Thwart China’s Cyberattacks”
