Homeland Security bans DeepSeek use in federal civilian agencies

The Department of Homeland Security has issued a sweeping restriction to remove DeepSeek use across all federal civilian agencies and their IT systems. In a notice published with the Federal Register, DHS characterized the risks of DeepSeek use as potentially resulting in the "transfer of sensitive data" of US government employees and vendors to the Chinese government. Following the order, civilian agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency or Federal Communications Commission would have to exclude any DeepSeek products from being used, while also removing any existing related products. DHS said in the notice that DeepSeek's models could "contain malware or other security vulnerabilities." DHS' order comes on the heels of DeepSeek releasing its latest model, V4.1-Flash-1017, which the company called "smarter, faster, more efficient."