U.S. Department of Homeland Security

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an order prohibiting federal civilian departments from procuring or using DeepSeek products, including derivative services developed with DeepSeek technology, with the exception of national security systems.

The US federal agencies' restriction order against DeepSeek targets procurement and information systems of US federal civilian agencies, including related third-party products, rather than a global ban aimed at ordinary users.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a directive prohibiting federal civilian agencies from using the products and services of the Chinese AI company DeepSeek.

The order does not automatically ban other Chinese models; further restrictions still require a corresponding decision.

The rule was originally issued on July 24, with the pre-release text made public on October 19, and it is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on October 20.

This DHS order is a federal procurement and usage restriction whose binding target is federal civilian departments, not all U.S. citizens or private enterprises.

The ban order was issued as early as before July 24, but only became public recently.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established after the "9/11" events in 2001 and is mainly responsible for border security, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection and emergency management.

Currently available public information has not yet disclosed the specific implementation timetable, exemption mechanisms, or details of the consequences of violations of this order.

The scope of removal ordered by DHS includes not only DeepSeek's own products but also products built by third-party vendors on top of DeepSeek implementations.

Agencies may apply in writing for an exception within 60 days of the order's issuance, with CISA approving case by case; the Secretary of Homeland Security must review the order within one year and annually thereafter.

DHS listed three threat vectors: DeepSeek servers are located in China and local laws permit broad access to private infrastructure; the registration process collects personal information and may perform digital fingerprinting; a February 2025 NowSecure audit found multiple critical vulnerabilities in the iPhone app. The document does not describe any case in which government data actually flowed to DeepSeek.

Previously, security concerns about DeepSeek from multiple U.S. agencies mostly appeared in the form of risk assessments or internal reminders; this time DHS has implemented them through a formal directive.

DHS issues such directives under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and internal security policies; they are binding on federal civilian agencies but do not directly apply to military departments such as the Department of Defense or to private enterprises.

Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) is a concept formally defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2005.

This DHS predictive enforcement unit conducts roadside stops and checks based on the results of financial data analysis.

SEVIS is an electronic tracking system deployed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003 following the 9/11 attacks to monitor international students and visiting scholars holding F-1, J-1, and M-1 visas.

ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, established in 2003 when the George W. Bush administration reorganized the homeland security structure in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

美国国土安全部将关键基础设施划分为16个领域，欧盟NIS2指令涵盖11个基本实体类别

CISA负责协调保护美国16个关键基础设施部门，并运营US-CERT（美国计算机应急响应小组）