The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ordered federal civilian agencies to immediately remove artificial intelligence (AI) products and services developed by Chinese AI company DeepSeek from their IT systems and prohibit future procurements of the technology.
The order covers products and services developed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd., its affiliates, and third-party offerings built using DeepSeek implementations.
DHS made the order public on Oct. 19 through a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication on Oct. 20. However, the restrictions had already taken effect in late July, after DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin signed the order on July 24 under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018 (FASCSA).
“DeepSeek presents multiple threat vectors that pose significant risk to the cybersecurity of U.S. government systems,” DHS said in the signed order.
The department cited DeepSeek’s collection and storage of user data in China, the transmission of user prompts and AI-generated responses to servers in the People’s Republic of China, and security and privacy vulnerabilities identified through forensic analyses.
According to DHS, those practices could expose sensitive information about U.S. users and government programs. The department also warned that DeepSeek models could generate inaccurate, biased, or harmful content.
The order applies to federal civilian executive branch agencies but excludes procurements by the Department of Defense and the intelligence community, as well as national security systems.
During the removal process, DHS advised agencies to monitor network traffic, increase logging, implement data loss prevention controls, and take other measures to reduce the risk of data exfiltration.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will oversee implementation through its FASCSA Order Implementation Team.