The Department of Homeland Security ordered all federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products from their IT systems and barred the Chinese AI company from future federal contracts, citing national security risks tied to the firm's operations in China1,2,3.
The order, signed by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, was posted to the Federal Register on October 20, 2026. It requires immediate compliance. The action is filed under Docket No. DHS-2026-0628.
Threat vectors and legal basis
Mullin identified several threat vectors, including the unauthorized transfer of sensitive data to China, intelligence gathering on U.S. persons, and the potential introduction of malware or security vulnerabilities through DeepSeek's models4. DeepSeek models store data on servers based in China, where national security laws give the Chinese government broad authority to request and obtain data from domestic companies, according to the order. Models hosted directly by DeepSeek collect personally identifiable information from users and trace their digital fingerprints online.
The ban covers all information technology products and services from parent company Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and its affiliates. It invokes the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018 and a review by the Federal Acquisition Security Council.
Scope and timing
CyberScoop reported that the notice includes a copy of a letter from Mullin ordering the exclusion of DeepSeek products dated June 26, indicating the ban has been in place for months before the Federal Register publication. Bloomberg Law separately reported the accompanying order was dated July 24. The scope is described as deliberately narrow, applying to civilian federal agencies rather than the broader government or private sector.
Spokespeople for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ban arrives as DeepSeek continues to ship competitive models. The company released DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on October 17, an update that it says reduces task execution time and output length[2]. ANALYSIS The formal exclusion from federal procurement channels does not affect DeepSeek's commercial or open-source distribution, but it codifies a supply-chain firewall that could influence how other government-adjacent buyers evaluate the company's products.