[HN Gopher] FCC Updates Covered List to Include Foreign-Made Con...
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FCC Updates Covered List to Include Foreign-Made Consumer Routers
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
Author : moonka
Score : 47 points
Date : 2026-03-23 21:28 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.fcc.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.fcc.gov)
| buzer wrote:
| > all consumer-grade routers produced in foreign countries
|
| Are there even consumer-grade routers that are produced in the
| USA...?
| kbumsik wrote:
| Right? Even enterprise routers, e.g. Cisco, are not produced in
| USA.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| Time for the made in USA tin can and a string.
| daemonologist wrote:
| Hey, let's not undersell America's high-tech manufacturing
| capability. We could easily produce morse code keys and
| copper wire, for a price of course.
| amluto wrote:
| 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...
| weightedreply wrote:
| Will this impact the Mono Gateway[0]?
|
| [0] https://mono.si/
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| 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.
| Someone1234 wrote:
| 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.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| If we wanted secure products, we wouldn't ban devices. We'd
| mandate they open their firmware to audits.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| problem is: how do you prove the firmware in the flash chip
| matches source? And I do not mean me, with a disassembler and a
| pi pico to read out the flash chip. I mean the 70-yaer-old
| corner shop owner that buys this router to provide free WiFi
| for customers?
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(page generated 2026-03-23 23:00 UTC)