DeepSeek banned from SA Government

The State Government has moved swiftly this morning to ban DeepSeek from all SA Government networks and devices.

Under the South Australian cyber security framework, the Chinese Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot has been blocked from the SA Government network and a directive issued to public servants to remove the app from their devices.

The move follows the banning of TikTok from SA Government devices in 2023 on the grounds of security and privacy risks.

In the past 24 hours, the Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs determined that DeepSeek poses an unacceptable risk to the Australian Government’s technology estate and issued a mandatory direction to prevent its access, use or installation on all Australian Government devices.

AI presents both opportunities and risks, with DeepSeek retaining significant amounts of data to train its AI model.

This platform poses unacceptable risks to the South Australian Government’s ICT systems.

Quotes

Attributable to Stephen Mullighan

We have taken swift action to ban DeepSeek on government devices, based upon the best advice from federal security advisors and our Chief Information Officer.

I have approved a directive for DeepSeek to be removed, banned and blocked from any government devices.

This is a necessary and prudent measure to protect the security of government information and any information held on behalf of the general public.

I would also urge members of the general public who use DeepSeek to be vigilant and not upload any personal information they may not want to enter the public sphere.

Attributable to Michael Brown

We know the potential and opportunities of AI, however when it comes to unacceptable risk to sensitive government information it is imperative that we take swift action.

As a Government we must be nimble to the emerging opportunities and threats of AI and we have moved quickly to protect the government and community from the potential threat posed by this platform.