[News Comment] DeepSeek Data Breach

The DeepSeek data breach is yet another example of what happens when speed is prioritised over security. More than a million sensitive records were exposed, not due to a sophisticated cyberattack, but because of basic misconfigurations in cloud storage. This wasn’t an advanced threat actor exploiting a zero-day vulnerability. It was a preventable failure caused by security being treated as an afterthought.

This reflects a broader issue in the industry. Companies are in a rush to deploy new products, integrate AI, and scale as quickly as possible, but security is rarely built into these processes from the start. Instead, it is often patched on later, if at all. The result is predictable. Weak security practices leave systems exposed, user data is compromised, and organisations face reputational and financial damage that could have been avoided with proper secure development practices.

There is no excuse for such fundamental security failures. Secure development practices, proper access controls, and regular security reviews should be standard, not optional. Yet breaches like this continue to happen because too many companies see security as a cost rather than a necessity.

DeepSeek’s breach is not unique, but it is a reminder of what happens when security is neglected. Until organisations start integrating security into every stage of development, these incidents will keep happening.