WTF. The US Department of Homeland Security has ordered every federal civilian agency to remove DeepSeek from its IT systems and stop buying it. The ban also covers third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations, including software supplied by other companies. The order was signed by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on July 24 and required immediate removal, but did not become public until October 19, nearly three months later. Mullin warns that DeepSeek could transfer sensitive data to China and generate actionable intelligence on US persons or government agencies. He writes that 'the models themselves may contain malware or other security vulnerabilities' and encourages agencies to monitor network traffic, strengthen logging and watch for data exfiltration until removal is complete.