US may ban the most popular home router over Chinese security fears
The Chinese-made TP-Link router used by Amazon, hundreds of ISPs, and 65% of the US market, is facing an investigation that could see it banned by the government.
A TP-Link router
Unspecified sources say that the Commerce Department under President Biden has already subpoenaed TP-Link. Between the three Departments, it's possible that TP-Link will be banned at some point in 2025 -- which obviously puts it under the Trump administration.
If a ban takes place, it is remarkably similar to the Trump administration's ban on Huawei technology in 2019. It's also close to how in 2022 the Biden administration's FCC declared Kaspersky anti-virus software to be a national security risk.
Now according to the Wall Street Journal, the US Commerce, Defense, and Justice Departments have each opened probes into China's TP-Link.
TP-Link rose to prominence in the US during the pandemic, going from a 20% market share to a 65% one in December 2024. More than 300 ISPs provide TP-Link as their default router.
As well as domestic users, TP-Link is reportedly now being used extensively at NASA, the Defense Department, and the DEA. The Biden Administration is considering a full purge of all installed TP-Link routers in federal service, though.
Security is the central concern for the investigations. While TP-Link routers are not specifically linked to the Salt Typhoon attacks, the three Departments are concerned that such action has exposed vulnerabilities that TP-Link is allegedly slow to resolve.
The Justice Department is also concerned with the pricing of the routers. The suspicion is that TP-Link routers are priced artificially low in order to get them into US firms.
It's also alleged that these routers may have been used in order to conduct cyber attacks on organizations including the Department of Defense.
Consequently the Justice Department is also looking at whether the company is violating the federal law that prohibits undercutting prices to create a monopoly. TP-Link denies the claim, and says that it will cooperate with the investigations.
"We welcome any opportunities to engage with the U.S. government to demonstrate that our security practices are fully in line with industry security standards," said a TP-Link spokesperson, "and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the US market, US consumers, and addressing US national security risks."
Should there be a ban, it would enacted in the same way as the Huawei one, which saw that technology being actively removed from government installs. Given the prevalence of TP-Link routers in homes, though, it's impossible that every domestic installation of every model could be replaced.
That means, however, that a ban on national security grounds would almost certainly lead to an escalation of security issues. Even if TP-Link were allowed to continue operating in the US, it would be unlikely to carry on updating software for existing routers.
Such a ban would benefit US firms such as Netgear, although it would contribute to the ongoing US/China trade tensions.
Separately, Congress recently wrote to the Department of Dense about China's dominance in the display market.
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Comments
The modern analog to the invasion of Poland might be when China takes Taiwan. That analogy will break down, though, when the US (acting in the analog role to the UK) decides to just let Taiwan go rather than go to war over it. But that won't mean the war is averted, only that it will take longer.
The main question is just how hot or cold will the war be. So far it's hotter than the Cold War but colder than WW2.
In any event -- yeah, we need to be very careful about Chinese equipment. The CCP is an enemy.
I would think they are the most popular home routers and the primary reason why Apple abandoned the WiFi router market.
I was curious about who has the highest home WiFi router share, and it really has to be combo broadband/WiFi router units. Really hard for me to believe it is a standalone WiFi router. The market has so many white box or badge engineered brands that I'd rather read a report, or preferably a plot. For homes, it's going to be, what, 10:1, maybe 100:1 ratio between combo boxes from the ISP and standalone WiFi routers.
Even the Pentagon still relies on waivers to skirt 'obligations'.
https://fortune.com/asia/2024/07/03/pentagon-huawei-ban-national-defense-authorization-act/
Much of the internet ends up running over vast networks of fibreoptic cables and Huawei has laid (and manages) thousands of km of underwater lines.
The so called 'clean networks' that the US tries to promote (while trying to keep a straight face) are also nonsense.
Huawei offered to licence its entire 5G stack to a US consortium (just to allow it to have something of 'its own' to control) but the US refused.
The reality is (and always was) that the US sees China as being able to overtake it in key areas and instead of trying to compete with better products and technologies it chooses to try and bludgeon any rival out of the game.
That includes 'allies' who used Chinese technology (5G for example) and who refused to play along. Just ask Boris.
https://www.ft.com/content/a70f9506-48f1-11ea-aee2-9ddbdc86190d
https://frontierindia.com/cias-black-ops-led-the-uk-to-drop-huawei-5g-book-reveals/?srsltid=AfmBOopICiosJ_OrLJshH8Hvh5XsjrMdXnaWYFfPhtMlbJg6G-7Q_XcV&utm_content=cmp-true
The UK was a prime example, seeing its 5G capacity and performance crumple into one of the worst in the EU and costing billions in the process.
As a result China has become more self sufficient and is on an accelerated path to further self sufficiency.
Erradicating TP-Link from US systems will do nothing to enhance national security and using Cisco might even make things riskier! Maybe that's tongue in cheek.
The internet is what it is, and has to be, for what we expect of it even if the US (and China too) would like to see it split apart in order to gain more 'control'.
I believe Trump once put forward the idea of an 'American 5G' and had to be 'informed' of reality. If that is true (and I believe he suggested Apple create it) I'm sure it wasn't tongue in cheek.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg4zxkel2xeo
Germany is another country that is looking at, "face eating leopards", as its energy costs have pulled the rug out from under Germany's vaunted industrial base, on top of its overaged worker base. But sure, trade with China is still a thing...
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/german-auto-industry-s-transformation-could-result-in-190-000-job-losses-by-2035/3378758#:~:text=Inflationary%20pressures%2C%20high%20energy%20costs,large%20portion%20of%20German%20exports.
All that aside, Apple makes nearly all their products in China. Apple's flagship product is "privacy." Now, while that sinks in a bit, a product I'd really like from Apple is a return to making home internet routers/ wifi like the long abandoned Airport - but with an onboard Apple created VPN. Yes, I'd pay a subscription service.
While we are on the subject, I'm pondering using a mac mini as a wifi base station. Plug the ethernet port right into the cable modem, then share the internet connection via wifi with a VPN running on it. Anyone else do this? Seems like it has some significant advantages.