AI firm DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations, a senior U.S. official told Reuters, adding that the Chinese tech startup sought to use Southeast Asian shell companies to access high-end semiconductors that cannot be shipped to China under U.S. rules.
The U.S. conclusions reflect a growing conviction in Washington that the capabilities behind the rapid rise of one of China's flagship AI enterprises may have been exaggerated and relied heavily on U.S. technology.
Hangzhou-based DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the technology world in January, saying its artificial intelligence reasoning models were on par with or better than U.S. industry-leading models at a fraction of the cost.
"We understand that DeepSeek has willingly provided and will likely continue to provide support to China's military and intelligence operations," a senior State Department official told Reuters in an interview.
"This effort goes above and beyond open-source access to DeepSeek's AI models," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to speak about U.S. government information.
The U.S. government's assessment of DeepSeek's activities and links to the Chinese government have not been previously reported and come amid a wide-scale U.S.-China trade war.
The ICO said over 150,000 U.K. residents had data stolen in the breach.
The U.K. data protection watchdog has fined 23andMe £2.31 million ($3.1 million) for failing to protect U.K. residents’ personal and genetic data prior to its 2023 data breach.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said on Tuesday it has fined the genetic testing company as it “did not have additional verification steps for users to access and download their raw genetic data” at the time of its cyberattack.
In 2023, hackers stole private data on more than 6.9 million users over a months-long campaign by accessing thousands of accounts using stolen credentials. 23andMe did not require its users to use multi-factor authentication, which the ICO said broke U.K. data protection law.
The ICO said over 155,000 U.K. residents had their data stolen in the breach.
In response to the fine, 23andMe told TechCrunch that it had rolled out mandatory multi-factor authentication for all accounts.
The ICO said it is in contact with 23andMe’s trustee following the company’s filing for bankruptcy protection. A hearing on 23andMe’s sale is expected later on Wednesday.
Jun 18, 2025, 19:09 GMT+1
Iran’s state broadcaster was hacked Wednesday night, with videos calling for street protests briefly aired.
Footage circulated on social media showed protest-themed clips interrupting regular programming.
"If you experience disruptions or irrelevant messages while watching various TV channels, it is due to enemy interference with satellite signals," state TV said.
The hacking of the programming on Wednesday night was limited to satellite transmissions, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) said.
Global banking giant UBS has suffered a data breach following a cyber-attack on a third-party supplier.
In a statement emailed to Infosecurity, a UBS spokesperson confirmed a breach had occurred, but it had not impacted customer data or operations.
“A cyber-attack at an external supplier has led to information about UBS and several other companies being stolen. No client data has been affected. As soon as UBS became aware of the incident, it took swift and decisive action to avoid any impact on its operations,” the UBS statement read.
Swiss-based newspaper Le Temps reported that information about 130,000 UBS employees had been published on the dark web by a ransomware group called World Leaks, previously known as Hunters International, following the incident.
This data includes business contact details, including phone number, their job role and details of their location and floor they work on.
The direct phone number of UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti was reportedly included in the published data.
UBS also confirmed to Infosecurity that the external supplier at the center of the incident was procurement service provider Swiss-based Chain IQ.
Another Chain IQ client, Swiss private bank Pictet, also revealed it had suffered a data breach as a result of the attack. Pictet said in statement published by Reuters that the information stolen did not contain its client data and was limited to invoice information with some of the bank's suppliers, such as technology providers and external consultants.
At the time of writing, it is not known whether any other Chain IQ customers have been impacted.
News broke today about "one of the largest data breaches in history," sparking wide media coverage filled with warnings and fear-mongering. However, it appears to just be a compilation of previously leaked credentials stolen by infostealers, exposed in data breaches, and via credential stuffing attacks.
To be clear, this is not a new data breach, or a breach at all, and the websites involved were not recently compromised to steal these credentials.
Instead, these stolen credentials were likely circulating for some time, if not for years. It was then collected by a cybersecurity firm, researchers, or threat actors and repackaged into a database that was exposed on the Internet.
Cybernews, which discovered the briefly exposed datasets of compiled credentials, stated it was stored in a format commonly associated with infostealer malware, though they did not share samples
An infostealer is malware that attempts to steal credentials, cryptocurrency wallets, and other data from an infected device. Over the years, infostealers have become a massive problem, leading to breaches worldwide.
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The infostealer problem has gotten so bad and pervasive that compromised credentials have become one of the most common ways for threat actors to breach networks.
The company has not disclosed how many users were affected or whether any wallets were compromised as a result of the exploit.
Hackers exploited a vulnerability in CoinMarketCap’s front-end system, using a seemingly harmless doodle image to inject malicious code that triggered fake wallet verification pop-ups across the site.
The breach, confirmed by CoinMarketCap, used its backend API to deliver a manipulated JSON payload that embedded JavaScript into the homepage according to blockchain security firm Coinspect Security.
