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DeepSeek
CybersecurityDeepSeek for cybersecurity
Open-weight (MIT) Chinese language model with a 1M context window and a built-in reasoning mode, at very low API costs.
DeepSeek is not on our list for cybersecurity. Usable for general work, but first look at the options we recommend for cybersecurity.
- GDPR profileOur summary of what the provider itself publishes about your data: EU hosting possible, no training on your data for business use, and self-hosting available. Caution applies to a model with a documented problem, such as an investigation by a regulator. How we measure
- GDPR: Caution
- QualityQuality from blind duels on LMArena: users choose between two anonymous answers. A difference of about 20 points is noticeable, a few points is noise. How we measure
- 1475Elo, independent
- Editorial scoreOur own assessment on 10 of suitability for professional work, price and privacy. This is a judgement, not a measurement; that is why it always sits alongside the Elo. How we measure
- 7,4
- Entry price
- Free
What DeepSeek does in cybersecurity
- Detection and triage: assessing, grouping and summarising alerts from endpoints, network, cloud and email
- Investigation and response: working out incidents, writing queries and proposing or carrying out countermeasures
- Attack surface and pentests: mapping reachable systems and testing vulnerabilities with AI agents
- Awareness and reporting: phishing simulations, staff training and reports for NIS2 and the board
- Very low API costs
- Open weights (MIT), self-hostable
- Strong at reasoning, maths and code
- Large context window (1M tokens)
DeepSeek has a concrete GDPR concern. The DeepSeek service stores personal data in China and was blocked by the Italian regulator in January 2025. Advised against for regulated sectors, unless you host the model yourself within the EU. Weigh this heavily before deploying it in cybersecurity.
Confidentiality and GDPR
GDPR: CautionA security tool sees everything: log files, emails, usernames and network traffic. That is personal data, so you need a data processing agreement and must know where the data is stored. Also ask whether the AI assistant is trained on your data. WithSecure (Finland) says it processes data for Luminen in AWS in Europe and does not train foundation models on customer data. Sekoia stores data in Germany or elsewhere in the EU/EEA and is ISO 27001 certified. SoSafe (France) can run self-hosted. With Microsoft Security Copilot you choose the geo of your workspace, but sharing data with Microsoft is on by default. For Charlotte AI, ESET LiveAI and Mindgard the hosting location is not public. Never let an agent act on production systems without analyst approval, and record who makes the 24-hour report under the Cybersecurity Act when an incident occurs.
The DeepSeek service stores data in China and uses it for training by default (with an opt-out). Only an EU self-hosted variant of the open weights is defensible for sensitive data.
Prices
Other models for cybersecurity
Claude for cybersecurityAnthropic · editorial 9.01506
Gemini for cybersecurityGoogle · editorial 8.61527
ChatGPT for cybersecurityOpenAI · edition 8.91485
Copilot for cybersecurityMicrosoft · editorial 8.31485We do not know of a professional tool for cybersecurity that runs publicly on DeepSeek.
Questions about DeepSeek for cybersecurity
- Is DeepSeek suitable for cybersecurity?
- Not specifically. DeepSeek is not on our list for cybersecurity; it is broadly applicable, but first look at the options we recommend for cybersecurity. Keep a professional in the loop for every use.
- May I put confidential data into DeepSeek?
- A security tool sees everything: log files, emails, usernames and network traffic. That is personal data, so you need a data processing agreement and must know where the data is stored. Also ask whether the AI assistant is trained on your data. WithSecure (Finland) says it processes data for Luminen in AWS in Europe and does not train foundation models on customer data. Sekoia stores data in Germany or elsewhere in the EU/EEA and is ISO 27001-certified. SoSafe (France) can run self-hosted. With Microsoft Security Copilot, you choose the geo of your workspace, but sharing data with Microsoft is switched on by default. With Charlotte AI, ESET LiveAI and Mindgard, the hosting location is not public. Never let an agent intervene in production systems without an analyst's approval, and record who makes the 24-hour report under the Cybersecurity Act in the event of an incident. The DeepSeek service stores data in China and by default uses it for training (with opt-out). Only an EU self-hosted variant of the open weights is defensible for sensitive data.
- What does DeepSeek cost?
- There is Chat / app (Free), Self-hosted (Free), API (V4.1-Flash) ($0.15 / 1M in), API (V4-Pro) ($0.66 / 1M in). Check current prices on the official site.
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