A recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article reported that U.S. authorities may ban TP-Link routers. According to the WSJ report, investigators from three agencies (Commerce, Defense, and Justice) are conducting individual investigations into the company, and TP-Link routers could be banned from sale in the U.S. this year.
They are investigating whether the China-based manufacturer’s routers pose a national security risk. The routers have been linked to cyber-attacks. Many TP-Link routers hold the top sales spots on Amazon. TP-Link has about 65% of the U.S. residential and small business market. TP-Link’s router market dominance has been achieved because they are cheap, typically about half the price of its competitors.
Many believe that TP-Link routers routinely ship with security flaws that the company often fails to fix. All routers have bugs, but unlike other router manufacturers, TP-Link doesn’t work with security researchers. A TP-Link spokesperson said, “We welcome any opportunities to engage with the U.S. government to demonstrate that our security practices are fully in line with industry security standards, and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the U.S. market, U.S. consumers, and addressing U.S. national security risks.”
An October report from Microsoft found that a Chinese hacking network (MS calls CovertNetwork-1658, also known as xlogin and Quad7 or 7777) maintains a large network of compromised network devices mostly consisting of TP-Link routers. Numerous Chinese actors use the network to launch cyber-attacks. They have gone after Western targets including think tanks, government organizations, non-governmental organizations, and suppliers to the Department of Defense.
The Commerce Department review, one of the agencies investigating TP-Link, is being led by the Office of Information and Communications Technology and Services, which has the power to ban companies from designated countries from selling technology to the U.S. based on national security concerns. In its first action in June, the office barred Russian software company Kaspersky from selling products in the U.S. Some people said it would use the same authority to ban TP-Link if it decides to do so.
In 2019, the Trump administration banned telecommunications hardware from China-based Huawei Technologies and ZTE.
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