DHS Orders Federal Civilian Agencies to Remove DeepSeek Products
Summary
DHS ordered federal civilian agencies to stop procuring and remove DeepSeek products and derivatives, citing risks including potential access to sensitive data. The order does not cover private or consumer use.
Key points
- The order covers DeepSeek products, affiliate products, and third-party services built using DeepSeek technology.
- Agencies must exclude covered products from procurement and remove them from agency IT systems unless granted an exception.
- Agencies have 60 days from the order’s issuance to request exceptions; CISA will review requests and provide technical assistance when needed.
- DHS cited concerns about Chinese government access to infrastructure, personal information, user tracking, and possible transfer of sensitive government data to China.
- The order also cited a February 2025 NowSecure report that found unencrypted data transmissions, weak encryption, insecure local storage, user-fingerprinting risks, and data sharing in the DeepSeek iOS app.
Article Details
- Event Type
- Government restriction on technology products
- Impact
- DHS ordered federal civilian agencies within its authority to stop using DeepSeek products, products from its affiliates, and third-party products and services built using DeepSeek technology, and to remove them from agency systems or seek an exception. The order is based on concerns about access to user data and sensitive government information, data transfers to China, and potential malware; these are stated concerns, not confirmed findings in this article.
Products
Countries
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Artificial intelligenceDeepSeek (Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd) develops large language models and offers a chatbot, API services, and models suitable for coding and reasoning tasks.GovernmentDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS) is ordering federal civilian agencies to stop using DeepSeek products and remove them from government systems.