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FCC updates covered list to include foreign-made consumer routers

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FCC updates covered list to include foreign-made consumer routers

#1
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-420034A1.pdf

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adds-routers-produced-forei...

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-278A1.pdf

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74787w149zo

https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/fcc-bans-foreign-made-rou...

https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/03/24/fcc-just-banned-the-imp...

FCC updates covered list to include foreign-made consumer routers
fcc.gov

Re: FCC updates covered list to include foreign-made consumer routers

#7

    The FCC maintains a list of equipment and services (Covered List) 
    that have been determined to “pose an unacceptable risk to the
    national security

    Recently, malicious state and non-state sponsored cyber attackers
    have increasingly leveraged the vulnerabilities in small and home
    office routers produced abroad to carry out direct attacks against
    American civilians in their homes.
Vulnerabilities have nothing to do with country of manufacture. They have always been due to manufacturers' crap security practices. Security experts have been trying to call attention to this problem for 2 decades.

Manufacturers have never had to care about security because no Gov agency would ever mandate secure firmware. This includes the FCC which license their devices and the FTC who (until recently) had the direct mandate to protect consumers.

Our most recent step backward was to gut those agencies of any ability to provide consumer oversight. All they they can do now is craft protectionist policies that favor campaign donors.

The US has a bazillion devices with crap security because we set ourselves up for this.

Re: FCC updates covered list to include foreign-made consumer routers

#9
post #3

> all consumer-grade routers produced in foreign countries Are there even consumer-grade routers that are produced in the USA...?

But we can still buy old models:

> As outlined below, today’s action does not impact a consumer’s continued use of routers they previously acquired. Nor does it prevent retailers from continuing to sell, import, or market router models approved previously through the FCC’s equipment authorization process. By operation of the FCC’s Covered List rules, the restrictions imposed today apply to new device models.

I’m sure plenty of US factories are capable of importing boxes that look like routers but are actually just switches (because the router firmware is missing) and re-flashing them here…

Re: FCC updates covered list to include foreign-made consumer routers

#10
Considering this is after Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024), it will be interesting to see if this holds up to judicial scrutiny.

The FCC's power just got substantially nerfed, and "we've decided to slow lane all foreign-made routers" feels like that may have been beaten on the old, higher, standard. Let alone the new one that gives the FCC almost no power.

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