Deepseek's AI model proves easy to jailbreak - and worse

Amidst equal parts elation and controversy over what its performance means for AI, Chinese startup DeepSeek continues to raise security concerns. On Thursday, Unit 42, a cybersecurity research team at Palo Alto Networks, published results on three jailbreaking methods it employed against several distilled versions of DeepSeek's V3 and R1 models. According to the report, these efforts "achieved significant bypass rates, with little to no specialized knowledge or expertise being necessary." Also: Public DeepSeek AI database exposes API keys and other user data "Our research findings show that these jailbreak methods can elicit explicit guidance for malicious activities," the report states. "These activities include keylogger creation, data exfiltration, and even instructions for incendiary devices, demonstrating the tangible security risks posed by this emerging class of attack." Researchers were able to prompt DeepSeek for guidance on how to steal and transfer sensitive data, bypass security, write "highly convincing" spear-phishing emails, conduct "sophisticated" social engineering attacks, and make a Molotov cocktail. They were also able to manipulate the models into creating malware. "While information on creating Molotov cocktails and keyloggers is readily available online, LLMs with insufficient safety restrictions could lower the barrier to entry for malicious actors by compiling and presenting easily usable and actionable output," the paper adds. Also: OpenAI launches n...