wsj.com
www.wsj.com

TP-Link is the bestselling router on Amazon—and has been linked to Chinese cyberattacks

U.S. authorities are investigating whether a Chinese company whose popular home-internet routers have been linked to cyberattacks poses a national-security risk and are considering banning the devices.

The router-manufacturer TP-Link, established in China, has roughly 65% of the U.S. market for routers for homes and small businesses. It is also the top choice on Amazon, and powers internet communications for the Defense Department and other federal government agencies.

Investigators at the Commerce, Defense and Justice departments have opened their own probes into the company, and authorities could ban the sale of TP-Link routers in the U.S. next year, according to people familiar with the matter. An office of the Commerce Department has subpoenaed TP-Link, some of the people said. Action against the company would likely fall to the incoming Trump administration, which has signaled an aggressive approach to China.

Alternate Coverage: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/u-s-weighs-ban-on-chinese-made-router-in-millions-of-american-homes/ar-AA1w51es

  • floofloofEnglish
    8·
    1 day ago

    The company’s market dominance has been achieved in part through lower prices. Its routers are cheaper than competitors, often by more than half, according to market data.

    American router companies have also been linked to major hacks. U.S. investigators have linked some recent intrusions into critical infrastructure, attributed to a Chinese hacking group dubbed Volt Typhoon, to aging routers built by Silicon Valley-based Cisco Systems and Netgear.

    Nevertheless, those attacks have underscored the vulnerabilities posed by unpatched routers, which give hackers an easy vector for an attack, and possible additional risks posed by foreign-made routers.

    It does sort of sound like they just saw an opportunity to kick out the cheaper competition.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      1 day ago

      Yup. Here’s how I see it:

      • American routers - utter crap, and targeted by Chinese hackers
      • Chinese routers - utter crap, but not targeted (yet) by Chinese hackers, probably because they already have backdoors

      Blocking Chinese routers doesn’t solve the utter crap problem.