Does America even make any consumer routers?
The US government just banned consumer routers made outside the US
Submitted 15 hours ago by along_the_road@beehaw.org to technology@beehaw.org
https://www.theverge.com/news/899172/fcc-foreign-router-ban
Comments
Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 14 hours ago
Hux@lemmy.ml 13 hours ago
Probably not. The goal isn’t to sell American routers.
The goal is to sell routers to Americans with government back doors built-in.
Any companies with approval will be providing that back door.
sanzky@beehaw.org 5 hours ago
There is also the possibility that Pumpkin Harkonnen just wants some ‘donations’ to provide individual exceptions to brands.
RamenJunkie@midwest.social 1 hour ago
The US literallynonly produces stupid people, corn, and soybeans. Everything else comes from over seas.
drdalek@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
Lol nope
Kwakigra@beehaw.org 4 hours ago
My eero router recently got an update which permanently blocks archive.ph . What a coincidence.
orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 14 hours ago
This has pay-to-play written all over it. It’s also opening a door to US companies capturing a market, which you know is going to mean the US government gets a big ol’ backdoor. Suddenly Meta is in the router market… 💀
NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 14 hours ago
To be honest, this is probably justified. My knee-jerk reaction was “oh look, USA in antagonizing everyone else again”, but consumer routers are a really significant security junction which historically has always been somewhat neglected. I only read a few sentences before the paywall stopped me, but sounds like they’ll whitelist any foreign manufacturers that are legitimate.
Yes, it’s gonna have corruption and bribes all over it… But on paper, it’s justified.
kibiz0r@midwest.social 9 hours ago
The vulnerability is coming from inside the house
Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip 14 hours ago
I hope things like hardware made by/for openwrt remain available
Successful_Try543@feddit.org 13 hours ago
It seems like professional equipment will not be affected:
While the FCC’s Covered List makes it sound like the US is banning all “routers produced in a foreign country,” it’s defined a bit more narrowly than that. It’s specifically banning “consumer-grade routers” as defined in NIST Internal Report 8425A, which refers to ones “intended for residential use and can be installed by the customer.”
B0rax@feddit.org 12 hours ago
What? Because companies from other countries are evil? What makes you think that companies in your own country are better?
Why does the country even matter?
teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 10 hours ago
It’s just another routine fascist strategy:
“All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”
“When goods don’t cross borders, soldiers will”
NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
I’m not from the US. And I think the way they’re trying to tackle it is stupid, roughly for the reasons you say. But on a surface level it’s good that there is some action taken on this matter.
The country does matter. It allows oversight and regulation to a greater extent. And if it turns out that there’s a backdoor in a router, if it’s made locally there will be someone to criminally charge, whereas if it’s made in China or wherever, that would be impossible.
Then again, it’s the US, so they’d probably charge some random worker instead of the CEO who demanded the back door be implemented.
Successful_Try543@feddit.org 13 hours ago
but consumer routers are a really significant security junction which historically has always been somewhat neglected.
You’re right, but simply shifting the produchtion from overseas to US doesn’t inherently make the routers more secure. The aeticle mentions the lack of software updates for discontinued products as a big threat that has been exploited in the past.
I only read a few sentences before the paywall stopped me,
Fortunately, there is no paywall for me. Here is the article on archive.org.
but sounds like they’ll whitelist any foreign manufacturers that are legitimate.
No, the article mentions only one exception:
Now, router makers need to A) secure a “conditional approval” that lets them keep getting new products cleared for US entry while they work to convince the government that they’ll open up manufacturing in the US, or B) make the decision to skip selling future products in the US, like dronemaker DJI already did.
Hux@lemmy.ml 13 hours ago
trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf 14 hours ago
Yay more slip sliding into technocratic control
OwOarchist@pawb.social 14 hours ago
Just when I was about to upgrade my router, too. Fuck.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 13 hours ago
Routers are incredibly simple. You can run your own using openwrt or opnsense. Then some dumb switches and access points and you’re good to go.
dfi@lemmy.nz 9 hours ago
Upvoting this, you can turn any computer into a router as well. You can have control of your own hardware.
Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip 14 hours ago
It sounds like you should still be able to buy stuff, I don’t believe it takes active effect immediately
Successful_Try543@feddit.org 14 hours ago
It only applies to router models that aren’t approved by FCC yet. I.e., you will be able to buy those (current and future) models who already have an FCC approval.
seathru@quokk.au 14 hours ago
zebidiah@lemmy.ca 2 hours ago
Palantir branded routers when?