BrianKrebs (@[email protected])
infosec.exchange
Whoa, that escalated quickly. This just got sent out by the press folks at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC says it has decided that all foreign-made consumer-grade Internet routers are henceforth prohibited from receiving FCC authorization and are therefore prohibited from being imported for use or sale in the United States. "Update Follows Determination by Executive Branch Agencies that Consumer-Grade Routers Produced in Foreign Countries Threaten National Security WASHINGTON, March 23, 2026—Today, the Federal Communications Commission updated its Covered List to include all consumer-grade routers produced in foreign countries. Routers are the boxes in every home that connect computers, phones, and smart devices to the internet. This followed a determination by a White House-convened Executive Branch interagency body with appropriate national security expertise that such routers “pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons.” "The Executive Branch determination noted that foreign-produced routers (1) introduce “a supply chain vulnerability that could disrupt the U.S. economy, critical infrastructure, and national defense” and (2) pose “a severe cybersecurity risk that could be leveraged to immediately and severely disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure and directly harm U.S. persons.” "This action does not affect any previously-purchased consumer-grade routers. Consumers can continue to use any router they have already lawfully purchased or acquired." "Producers of consumer-grade routers that receive Conditional Approval from DoW or DHS can continue to receive FCC equipment authorizations. Interested applicants are encouraged to submit applications to [email protected]." Not sure how many consumer-grade routers will be left for sale if it really is a ban on approvals for any foreign-made consumer routers like they said, and not just a bunch of already restricted Chinese makers like Huawei and ZTE. https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-updates-covered-list-include-foreign-made-consumer-routers FCC's "covered list" of "thou shalt not entities": https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist
  • Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    2 hours ago

    Build your own open WRT router or get one of theirs. It’s the best way to go and you don’t get dragged through the monthly fee wringer for stupid child security or other stuff that is not well designed.

  • gwl [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    34·
    4 hours ago

    The excuse that it’s for security reasons just immediately falls apart when you get to this part of the article:

    The notice from the FCC states that companies can apply for conditional approval for new products from the Department of War or the Department of Homeland Security. However, that requires the businesses to provide a plan for shifting at least some of their manufacturing to the US in order to receive that conditional approval.

    So it’s fine to supposedly threaten national security if you do some more manufacturing in the US? Uh-huh. How does that balance out exactly?

    • MortUS@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      5 minutes ago

      In the Age of Technology and AI, it does make sense to have any manufacturing operations in house than overseas. Ofc if there were countries we could trust that would be onpar as well, but the U.S. pretty much shit the bed on alliances.

  • Pulsar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    38·
    4 hours ago

    The only explanation that makes sense to me is that this is a law to:

    1. get bribes or favors from telecom equipment manufacturers.
    2. Create a framework to force backdoors into consumer equipment.
    3. Force users to use ISP provided equipment.
  • apftwb@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    3 hours ago

    TPLink needed to get their shit in order for years. This has been cooking since 2019. However, this administration is just turned it into a bribery scheme.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.caEnglish
    371·
    5 hours ago

    Even more isolationism. Knowing how the usa works, they discovered the equipment was set up for spying on their people and they want all of that “spying on their own people” power for themselves.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      5 hours ago

      they want all of that “spying on their own people” power for themselves.

      My assumption as well, after after the video release in the Guthrie case, we know objectively that every device with a microphone or camera and a wireless connection is spying on us and feeding the data to the US government without a warrant too.

  • KulunkelBoom@lemmus.orgEnglish
    9·
    4 hours ago

    Thus assuring the American public of using shitty American made junk filled with who knows what spyware, and paying two or three times what the piece of junk is worth.

    So… who’s getting the kickbacks out of this deal? Let me guess… does it wear a lot of orange makeup?

  • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
    15·
    5 hours ago

    Does the US really make their own routers pretty much all electronics come from the China.

    I suspect what’s going to happen is that the components will come from China and then some white label manufacturer will just put them together in the US, therefore they were “made” in the US so are okay. But it’ll be literally the same chips and circuit board and firmware as before.

    • Big_Boss_77@fedinsfw.appEnglish
      9·
      4 hours ago

      Won’t even assemble them… they’ll just buy, slap a made in USA and branding sticker, rebox, and sell at a 150% markup

  • iegod@lemmy.zipEnglish
    18·
    6 hours ago

    You can always get your own non-router hardware of significantly higher quality and run PFSense or similar for an end result that blows any consumer grade router out of the water. Unless they start banning all PCs this is the better way to go anyway.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      10·
      5 hours ago

      Yes. I run OPNsense and it’s very good, and all you need is a machine with two or more Ethernet ports. But this option is becoming more expensive with the crazy prices of RAM and storage.

      • kalpol@lemmy.caEnglish
        4·
        4 hours ago

        You can run pfsense on a gig of memory if you arent using Snort or pfblocker. I had this on a vps for an email gateway, worked fine. Adding block lists or services gooses memory usage though

  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todayEnglish
    641·
    9 hours ago

    This only applies to routers.

    It’s not widely known outside the ham radio community, but part of the 2.4GHz wifi band overlaps the 13cm amateur radio band. If you turn off 5GHz wifi and lock the 2.4GHz AP to Channel 1, it qualifies as a ham radio, and can be sold as a ham radio instead of an AP/Router. You do need a ham radio license to operate it as a Ham AP, but you do not need a license to buy a Ham AP.

    If the end user wants to turn on 5GHz after the fact, there is not a damn thing the FCC can do about it.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      3·
      4 hours ago

      That deals with the need for a WiFi access point, but not the main router functionality. Another approach would be a low-power PC running OPNsense or PFsense with a WiFi card repurposed as an access point. Or, if the new policy concerns only routers and not access points, a PC for the router plus a dedicated WiFi access point (some device that is not capable of being a router).

    • evil_andy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      61·
      6 hours ago

      But you can’t run encryption on it. So that means no WEP, no WPA, no SSL, TLS, VPN, etc.

      So yes, while you could run your own wireless access point, it doesn’t solve the main requirement for most people which is privacy.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todayEnglish
        29·
        6 hours ago

        You aren’t understanding my point.

        My point is that you can continue to import and sell the exact same physical device, just with a little change in marketing, and possibly software.

        My point is this: Once you have acquired the device, there is fuck all the FCC can do about you converting your “ham radio” back into a consumer-grade router.

        • kalpol@lemmy.caEnglish
          4·
          4 hours ago

          This is technically not true, the FCC can and does enforce spectrum usage rules. Whether they will expend resources chasing down your router or your unlicensed GMRS is another matter.

  • Kelp@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    4 hours ago

    So this may be a good place to ask. With this news in mind does anyone have a good guide to follow to build your own router. I’ve read a little that a mini pc with more than one Ethernet port is the only requirement but I haven’t found any good guides yet, only articles on why you should.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      4·
      4 hours ago

      If you search for “install OPNsense” or “install PFsense” you’ll find quite a few guides. It’s not difficult to get going with these, but you should expect a bit of a learning curve if you’re coming from preconfigured home routers. It’s worth it though: these are far more powerful systems than regular home router software and give you much more control and advanced features like VLANs and intrusion detection.

  • tabular@lemmy.worldEnglish
    34·
    8 hours ago

    Only US allowed to spy on it’s denizens!!1

    People not being sure what their router is actually doing is the issue. Instead of hoping for local manufactoring why not mandate against black box software running on the router? Mandate routers come with schematics like all electronics used to do? Promote computer literacy while you’re at it.

    • Bluewing@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      6 hours ago

      A nice thought. But the Great Unwashed Masses do not care. They want a Quick Start Guide that just says “Plug it in” and no other steps required. They want the black box because they don’t want to learn and understand.

      And that attitude is less about the oligarchy and a lot more about all lazy people.

    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zipEnglish
      17·
      7 hours ago

      But that would be a sensible approch and strengthen the consumer. Not in the interest of the oligarchy.

    • bearboiblake@pawb.socialEnglish
      12·
      8 hours ago

      Sorry, are you expecting the government, which is owned and controlled by the ruling class, to make legal changes which would go against their own interests? Haven’t you been paying attention?

      If you want change, there’s only one way for us to get it, and it’s through a social revolution.