The Federal Communications Commission issued a National Security Determination banning the sale of new foreign-made routers in the United States. The justification: cyberattacks such as Salt Typhoon, Volt Typhoon, and Flax Typhoon compromised American telecom networks via vulnerabilities in network hardware. It leaves most routers made outside the US — read that as most routers worldwide — unable to be sold in America.
Routers already in people's homes are grandfathered in. As Sean Hollister points out, foreign manufacturers can still get a "conditional approval" that lets them keep selling while they work toward opening US manufacturing. Companies that don't want to bother — or can't pass — will just skip the American market entirely, the way drone maker DJI already did when it was declared a national security risk last year.
You could also look at this sideways and see that the best way to view and control web traffic generated by American citizens would be to control what hardware it's allowed to be transmitted with. Sleep tight with that tidbit in your thinking bits.
Previously:
