As per reports, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ordered federal civilian agencies to stop procuring products from Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd., its affiliates, and covered third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations.
The notice was filed for public inspection on Monday (19 October), with publication scheduled for Tuesday (20 October).
• The order establishes a government supply chain restriction requiring agencies to exclude covered products from new procurements and remove existing products from their information technology systems.
• The order includes two principal requirements. Federal civilian agencies must exclude DeepSeek and affiliate information technology products and services from procurement, and they must remove covered products from existing agency technology systems.
• The removal requirement extends beyond applications carrying the DeepSeek name to certain third-party products and services that incorporate DeepSeek implementations. Consequently, agencies may need to examine the underlying technologies used by their software suppliers rather than relying solely on product names or vendor identities.
• The third-party provision creates additional compliance considerations for security and procurement teams. An agency may access DeepSeek technology through a product supplied by another company, meaning that a review limited to branded chatbots could overlook covered implementations. The notice does not provide a comprehensive public list of affected third-party vendors or products.
• The restriction does not constitute a nationwide ban on DeepSeek for private businesses or individuals. It specifically directs federal civilian agencies to stop procuring covered products and remove them from their systems. The notice also does not establish that every DeepSeek deployment has resulted in a data breach, nor does it identify a specific intrusion or confirmed theft of government records.
Categories: Cyber Incident - Other
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