Last December, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned the import of all drones manufactured in other countries, unless they have an exemption. Now you have made the same movement on the networking hardware for consumers alleging ‘an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States and to the safety of American citizens.’ So, The FCC has banned the sale in the United States of any new model of Wi-Fi router manufactured abroad. Only those who can obtain an exemption from the Pentagon or of Department of Homeland Security.
According to the FCC, which is the US public body that regulates communications and authorizes equipment such as routers or mobile phones, among other functions, routers manufactured abroad introduce ‘supply chain vulnerabilities’ that can be exploited by hackers and computer spies. Specifically, the commission updated the blacklist (‘covered list’) of telecommunications equipment considered an unacceptable risk to US national security. Now includes ‘all consumer routers produced in foreign countries’.
However, the FCC highlights, ‘this measure Does not affect any previously purchased consumer routers. Consumers can continue to use any router they have already purchased or obtained legally.’
‘Nor does it prevent retailers from continuing to sell, import or market router models previously approved through the FCC equipment authorization process‘, adds the commission.
Still, the order prevents manufacturers from selling any new Wi-Fi routers that have been manufactured, developed or designed outside the USA Therefore, a new Wi-Fi router designed in the United States but produced abroad, or vice versa, would be prohibited.
‘This measure means that new models of routers manufactured abroad will no longer be able to be marketed or sold in the United States,’ the president of the FCC wrote in X, Brendan Carr.
The FCC is enforcing the ban through the aforementioned equipment authorization processwhich certifies routers, smartphones and game consoles for sale in the US. ‘New devices included on the Covered List, such as consumer routers manufactured abroad, They are prohibited from receiving authorization from the FCC and, therefore, are prohibited from being imported for use or sale in the United States.‘, he points out.
The order was issued this Monday following a ‘national security determination’ dictated by the Trump Administration on Friday. The four-page document states that ‘routers in the United States must have reliable supply chains to not provide foreign actors with potential built-in backdoors into American homes, businesses, critical infrastructure, and emergency services‘.
The FCC does not cite concrete evidence of a deliberate backdoor in existing products. Even so, cites how hackers, including Chinese state-sponsored groups, have exploited vulnerabilities in consumer routersmostly manufactured in foreign countries, to host their malicious activities. ‘Foreign-made routers were also implicated in cyberattacks voltage, Flax and Salt Typhoon directed against vital US infrastructure,’ says the commission, alluding to major attacks against telecommunications allegedly coming from China.
The resulting ban could affect all major router vendors, including netgearbased in the US, since many routers are manufactured in Taiwan and Vietnamin addition to China. However, the FCC says manufacturers can get a waiver from the Pentagon or the Department of Homeland Security. The request requires that the manufacturer justifies why the product is not made in the United Statesalong with a ‘Detailed, time-bound plan to establish or expand U.S. manufacturing of the router for which the applicant seeks conditional approval’.