USA bans all new routers for consumers | Hacker News Reader

USA bans all new routers for consumers

heise.de

72 pointsesher23 comments

The ban also includes a 2027 cutoff date for security updates to any unapproved routers. Given the long replacement cycle on home routers, I think the bigger security risk will end up being the millions of people using routers with unpatched security vulnerabilities…

This is about the dumbest thing I have ever heard

How come?

Feels like.. that's the point

If you take qualcomm (tplink and netgear use this for example), only standards development and frontier RF r&d happen mostly in the US. Most of the RFIC, RTL+firmware+software is mostly from their GCCs in India. Fab in TSMC. Assembly in China.

So what's the plan here.

The plan? Government control through "conditional approval" process and making it more costly to own a router than rent one from a consumer internet provider.

But....your ISP also has to procure a router from somewhere. Or are they just going to slap a sticker that says "verizon" on it and say it was made in the USA now?

They'll get a special government exemption, in return for accepting additional voluntary government oversight or some other under the table favour system.

That's why there's a "conditional approval" process attached to this rule.

this is basically saying "you cant do anything unless i allow you to (and i might for a price)" in contrast to when government should just say "these are the things that you cant do, anything else is ok".

To do with electronics what they do with cars, raise the barrier to entry to give domestic manufacturers an edge. Except with routers there is no inherently US category of device with tax loopholes carved out like there is with cars; i.e. big-ass trucks and SUVs.

The cynical side of me expects that approval for sale in the US will require some kind of surveillance back door as well.

Canadians and Mexicans may start supplying banned tech into the US like the rum-runners of old.

Related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47495344

I kind of wonder if we can also fix the "every device has internet access" problem.

All consumer routers let anything out. Your TV, your refrigerator, your microwave oven have unfettered access to the mothership - and data collectors/advertisers.

I think with 5g and 6g these devices might be getting other channels, and the two combined will just give us a huge proxy for the routers they are banning.

You said "also fix" but I'm not sure what preventing existing home routers from receiving security updates after 2027 fixes.

Do microwaves really have "smart" bs?

My 20-year old one sure doesn't. I do wish it could listen to the NIST Time signal to set the clock though :)

[dupe] Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47495344

Does this include ubiquiti? I can’t tell if that’s “consumer” or business/enterprise.

Not "new routers" but "new router models".

Do I wanna know why? I don't wanna know why.

"from intelligence agencies"

Pretty much, foreign adversaries have been using American home internet for years sounds like? This is a baseless claim fyi, I'm just trying to connect the dots.

If I had to guess it would be "campaign contributions".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com