# DHS Restricts DeepSeek in Federal IT

DeepSeek released V4.1-Flash-1017 on October 17, 2026, retaining the prior API method and pricing while claiming benchmark improvements. Separately, a DHS directive published as Federal Register notice 2026-21447 requires federal civilian agencies to exclude DeepSeek and affiliated products and remove them from agency IT systems, including covered third-party products built using DeepSeek implementations. The directive makes model provenance and supply-chain dependencies material considerations in federal-facing technology procurement, regardless of the ease or cost of testing the updated API.

- Federal civilian agencies must exclude covered DeepSeek products and remove them from agency IT systems under the directive.
- Contractors and suppliers serving federal agencies should assess model provenance, subcontractor dependencies, and whether their products incorporate covered DeepSeek implementations.
- Unchanged API pricing may make technical evaluation straightforward for existing users, but it does not resolve security, data-handling, or procurement review concerns.
- Organizations with affected products should evaluate replacement options before using them in federal-facing systems.

**Jurisdictions:** federal
**Industries:** Information Technology
**Topics:** Artificial Intelligence, Regulatory Compliance
**Published:** October 20, 2026

### Government Entities
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
- Federal civilian agencies

### Vendors
- DeepSeek (AI model developer and API provider)

### Sources
- [DeepSeek upgraded V4.1-Flash to V4.1-Flash-1017 without changing its API method or pricing. That lowers the cost of testing, but not the security, data-handling or procurement review. #DeepSeek https://t.co/6ZruSrb32o](https://x.com/spaisee_com/status/2112583624314782081) - twitter-fed-procurement