The Federal Communications Commission has released a notice today designating any consumer routers manufactured outside the US as a security risk.
  • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zipEnglish
    2 months

    Just to spell out what many comments already hint at:

    There are no US-made routers. “Made” here refers to companies, not where the stuff is actually made. Even if the plastic housing happened to be made in the US for one or two products, the components are still from far away.

    Those few US companies paid MAGA for this.

    This is corruption pure and simple.

    • kautau@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      And also I’m SURE there will be no backdoors installed in these routers. This was a mutual deal to control information, not just a financial one

      • lorty@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2 months

        It’s okay when it’s OUR backdoor, it’s not okay when it’s their speculative backdoor.

    • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      Those few US companies paid MAGA for this.

      Almost certainly not just a money thing. They very likely also made deals for government access to and control of their devices. This isn’t just corruption. It is fascism.

  • Australis13@fedia.io
    2 months

    Are there actually any US-made consumer network routers on the market? All the brands I can think of are pretty much made in Asia these days.

    • thejml@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2 months

      Ubiquiti is an American company, not sure if the tech is really MADE here though, seems like that’d be weird considering the components are all made outside the US anyway.

      • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2 months

        Ubiquiti may not be considered consumer with regards to this, but it’s pretty unclear so it’s a bit of a gamble.

        • thejml@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2 months

          Yeah, it’s all so ambiguous. I switched to them because they were better made and cheaper than the Netgear I was forced to replace after 1.5yrs. It’ll be interesting to see where this ends up. Probably lawsuits. Glad I’m already set for a while, I guess.

        • kieron115@startrek.websiteEnglish
          2 months

          It would be funny if, like, the UniFi line got banned but the EdgeOS line didn’t just based on target audience

      • tyler@programming.devEnglish
        2 months

        Those can’t be imported either lol. This ruling will never stand up in court.

        • Mirshe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2 months

          Nah, “conditional approval” is written into the regulation. You might know this wording better as “pay us a large sum and we’ll give you approval.”

          • SapphironZA@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2 months

            Exactly, since nothing is made in the US, only the ISP routers on the government list will be legal.

          • Pommes_für_dein_Balg@feddit.orgEnglish
            2 months

            Based on the regulation as written, approval is granted only if the company:

            • Fully reveals their entire supply chain
            • All business relationships and contracts
            • Justifies why they aren’t producing in the US
            • And provides a detailed step-by-step plan with a fixed schedule for moving production to the US
            • Which is then monitored by the government
        • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
          2 months

          It’s not a ruling, the FCC was ordered decided that they’re not going to certify any new foreign made home routing equipment. No certification means the radios won’t be legal for consumers to operate

          This isn’t a law or judicial ruling, it’s policy

  • NekoKoneko@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 months

    It’s incredible how every day in this country continues to be unimaginably dumber than the last.

    • 1995ToyotaCorolla@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      It’s really amazing how this country just ran on word and vibes up to this point. Turns out you could just do whatever and nobody would have the cajones to stop you

  • RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2 months

    The rent for your ISP provided hardware is about to go up by x10. Also you will get a letter saying you don’t have an approved router installed.

  • Phoenix3875@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 months

    So consumer grade routers are a security risk, but not ISP switches or server routers? That’s the opposite of what a state level actor would look for.

    • ferret@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2 months

      I mean, it’s kind of old news that these consumer routers make up the majority of bot nets, although I doubt requiring them to be US-made will change much.

      • 8oow3291d@feddit.dkEnglish
        2 months

        As I read it, they are scared of the Chinese Communist Party having an “official” back door built in. Not run-of-the-mill criminal bot-nets.

      • tidderuuf@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 months

        Is it? Because I just saw them available on Amazon and Alibaba. I think I even saw it on Walmart a few weeks ago too.

  • themurphy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2 months

    Be ready to get shut out of the global internet and only use Trumpernet.

    Seriously though, they’ll block yalls internet access in a few years.

    • ms.lane@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      Glad Australia is finally getting some decent fiber links up through Singapore.

      SEA-ME-WE3 is a joke and before IndigoWest and ASC, almost all of our international transit was via US.

  • Tarambor@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 months

    The only slight problem with this is that there are no routers made in the USA.

    • sunbeam60@feddit.ukEnglish
      2 months

      Well, you can run your own router on your own hardware but other than that, agreed.

        • sunbeam60@feddit.ukEnglish
          2 months

          My point was mostly that the concept of a router can be executed by any computer with more than one NIC.

          Trump isn’t disallowing computers from outside the US, surely, only stuff that looks like routers. They’ll have a hard time defining what a router is.

          • Reygle@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2 months

            Yeah, I wonder how the dumbasses licking his boots will feel about brands like Qotom/etc making high interface mini pcs- whether they consider them “routers” under this. I hope we don’t have to go back to what I did 10 years ago- cheap intel desktops with 3-4 nics.

      • andallthat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 months

        well, Trump has a worryingly faint and ever-changing idea of where the USA borders end…

    • Kissaki@feddit.orgEnglish
      2 months

      All it needs is a bribe from Cisco, and it’s no problem anymore. Probably.

    • excral@feddit.orgEnglish
      2 months

      New business venture: sell computers that totally aren’t routers, pinky promise, but just randomly happen to run OpenWrt perfectly and have all the needed hardware.

  • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    2 months

    Great, so zero network products can be sold, and we have to dispose of any existing ones in a couple years.

    I guess the US won’t have any Internet anymore.

    • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
      2 months

      Perhaps it’s a fallback plan in case the universal Internet ID thing doesn’t work out. Gotta keep the masses stupid and uncoordinated.

    • kieron115@startrek.websiteEnglish
      2 months

      Based on the language, it would seem to exclude ISP provided routers as those are not “designed to be installed by the consumer”. It also excludes anything not SoHo.

      • darkdemize@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2 months

        I haven’t seen an ISP offer tech installation on anything in years unless the home wasn’t pre-wired. Self installation kits are the norm these days.

        • oaklandnative@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2 months

          Seems like a great opportunity for ISP to start charging whatever they want to install their crap. Don’t want to pay for the installation and use their router? No internet for you!

    • compostgoblin@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      2 months

      Where did it say we have to dispose of existing ones? It doesn’t say that no products can be sold, and the article specifically says models that have already been approved can continue to be sold. I also think it’s dumb, but it’s important to be accurate.

      • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        2 months

        In an exception to the usual rule, routers included on the Covered List can continue to receive updates at least through March 1, 2027, although the date could potentially be extended.

        I guess it depends on what this means here. It COULD mean that you won’t get software updates (security updates) next year.

        • HeyJoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2 months

          Lol i love how something so massive was just given an arbitrary 1 year date. We all know it’s because nobody dealing with this has any clue what the impact is, and any that do don’t care because it will probably be making them more money… no way this all happens within a year, and if it does it’s gonna be a shit show.

  • maplesaga@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 months

    Something is happening, first the age verification and now this. They’re setting up to verify identities online I presume?

    • Australis13@fedia.io
      2 months

      I’m more wondering that if all consumer network routers have to be made in the US (e.g. forcing people to use the ISP-provided one), it makes it easier for them to utilise the ISP’s backdoors for monitoring of people’s LANs. If that’s actually the goal, then the next logical step would be to deny anyone access using a third-party router or ISP-provided router that didn’t have their firmware.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
      2 months

      They’re setting up to verify identities online I presume?

      To track online activities.

      To ensure nobody is doing anything the government (or its corporate funders) don’t like.

      Look at the Project2025 manifesto and see how much they want people’s activities to be controlled.

  • hperrin@lemmy.caEnglish
    2 months

    I’m so glad they’re focusing on this instead of how shitty and expensive our home internet is.

    • Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2 months

      You’ll be able to save so much money once private households wont have internet anymore!

    • Stupidmanager@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      Mandatory Triple play packages by xfinity is coming BACK! Yay… I forgot what it was like to over pay for my internet with 2 additional services I don’t want. Can’t wait.

      /s

  • phutatorius@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2 months

    What’s the play here? Something isn’t making sense.

    With the Trump administration, the only thing you can be sure of is that the stated reason isn’t the real reason. Somebody’s got to be getting a payday from this.

    • Bieren@lemmy.todayEnglish
      2 months

      It’s a money grab. About the only networking companies that build in the us are like Cisco and juniper. Which odds are, you aren’t running at home. This is without a doubt a money grab. Google and Amazon will gladly pay the exemption fee. Some others will as well. This isn’t about security or “pay American”. It’s a money grab.

    • yeehaw@lemmy.caEnglish
      2 months

      Same play as always. Bullies countries and corps to get what he wants. As long as it serves him that’s all he cares about.

    • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
      2 months

      There will be some meetings with oems, and gold things dropped on his desk, and the exceptions will start being handed out. Same as always.

    • IratePirate@feddit.orgEnglish
      2 months

      So at what point do they ban all new computers not made domestically?

      FTFY. It’s the same thing.

    • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2 months

      well pricing them out of reach of the population wasn’t working, so soon

    • Triumph@fedia.io
      2 months

      It’s so they can more reliably distribute their own backdoors.

      • tyler@programming.devEnglish
        2 months

        But how? America doesn’t make routers. There’s no American routers to put backdoors in!

        • plateee@piefed.socialEnglish
          2 months

          That’ll be part of the “concessions” that foreign made routers make to get approval.

          Why the fuck else would the department of defense need to weigh in?

          • greybeard@feddit.onlineEnglish
            2 months

            It also allows the DoD and DHS to collect application fees which gives them dark money to play with outside the oversight of Congress.

        • Lemmayng@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2 months

          Doesn’t have to be a hardware backdoor. Router manufacturers can easily push software updates that contain said “backdoor” for the low, low price of licking Trump’s backdoor.

    • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2 months

      The few “usa made” routers companies lobbying your president to forbid their competition?