• Hux@lemmy.ml
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      16 hours ago

      Probably not. The goal isn’t to sell American routers.

      The goal is to sell routers to Americans with government back doors built-in.

      Any companies with approval will be providing that back door.

      • sanzky@beehaw.org
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        8 hours ago

        There is also the possibility that Pumpkin Harkonnen just wants some ‘donations’ to provide individual exceptions to brands.

  • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
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    17 hours ago

    This has pay-to-play written all over it. It’s also opening a door to US companies capturing a market, which you know is going to mean the US government gets a big ol’ backdoor. Suddenly Meta is in the router market… 💀

  • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
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    17 hours ago

    To be honest, this is probably justified. My knee-jerk reaction was “oh look, USA in antagonizing everyone else again”, but consumer routers are a really significant security junction which historically has always been somewhat neglected. I only read a few sentences before the paywall stopped me, but sounds like they’ll whitelist any foreign manufacturers that are legitimate.

    Yes, it’s gonna have corruption and bribes all over it… But on paper, it’s justified.

    • B0rax@feddit.org
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      15 hours ago

      What? Because companies from other countries are evil? What makes you think that companies in your own country are better?

      Why does the country even matter?

      • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
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        13 hours ago

        It’s just another routine fascist strategy:

        “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

        “When goods don’t cross borders, soldiers will”

      • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
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        14 hours ago

        I’m not from the US. And I think the way they’re trying to tackle it is stupid, roughly for the reasons you say. But on a surface level it’s good that there is some action taken on this matter.

        The country does matter. It allows oversight and regulation to a greater extent. And if it turns out that there’s a backdoor in a router, if it’s made locally there will be someone to criminally charge, whereas if it’s made in China or wherever, that would be impossible.

        Then again, it’s the US, so they’d probably charge some random worker instead of the CEO who demanded the back door be implemented.

        • B0rax@feddit.org
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          12 hours ago

          What kind of oversight are you talking about? Locally produced items do not need to fulfill more regulations.

          If this was about cyber security there would be a mandatory certification (like there is for emc, like the FCC). But blanket statements like „foreign company bad!“ don’t do anything for increasing cyber security

          • kibiz0r@midwest.social
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            12 hours ago

            Yeah, items are licensed according to where they’re sold, not made. “More oversight” makes no sense.

    • Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip
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      17 hours ago

      I hope things like hardware made by/for openwrt remain available, but it sounds like they will cease to be?

      My first thought was the risk of the us demanding us manufacturers include a backdoor

      It sounds like the exemption for foreign companies is an option while they create plans for american manufacturing

      • Successful_Try543@feddit.org
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        16 hours ago

        I hope things like hardware made by/for openwrt remain available, but it sounds like they will cease to be?

        It seems like professional equipment will not be affected:

        While the FCC’s Covered List makes it sound like the US is banning all “routers produced in a foreign country,” it’s defined a bit more narrowly than that. It’s specifically banning “consumer-grade routers” as defined in NIST Internal Report 8425A, which refers to ones “intended for residential use and can be installed by the customer.”

        • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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          15 hours ago

          That’s not reassuring. It sounds like they don’t want home users to be able to get any router they could manage themselves.

        • Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip
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          15 hours ago

          I’m not sure their like bananapi based router would be considered professional. More home tinkerer

          I’m not sure what that’ll mean for the impact of this change, but I guess we’ll see 🤷🏻‍♂️

    • Successful_Try543@feddit.org
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      12 hours ago

      but consumer routers are a really significant security junction which historically has always been somewhat neglected.

      You’re right, but simply shifting the production from overseas to US doesn’t inherently make the routers more secure. The article mentions the lack of software updates for discontinued products as a big threat that has been exploited in the past.

      I only read a few sentences before the paywall stopped me,

      Fortunately, there is no paywall for me. Here is the article on archive.org.

      but sounds like they’ll whitelist any foreign manufacturers that are legitimate.

      No, the article mentions only one exception:

      Now, router makers need to A) secure a “conditional approval” that lets them keep getting new products cleared for US entry while they work to convince the government that they’ll open up manufacturing in the US, or B) make the decision to skip selling future products in the US, like dronemaker DJI already did.

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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      16 hours ago

      Routers are incredibly simple. You can run your own using openwrt or opnsense. Then some dumb switches and access points and you’re good to go.

      • dfi@lemmy.nz
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        12 hours ago

        Upvoting this, you can turn any computer into a router as well. You can have control of your own hardware.

        • Ooops@feddit.org
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          9 hours ago

          The problem is that this is not targeting the <1% that would just build their own router. Surveilance and control of the other 99% is sufficient.

          • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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            6 hours ago

            I totally agree, but hopefully with some advocacy we can get it from 99 to 98%. Doesn’t sound like much, but that’s 2 million people who have switched then, and whoever else may live in their house using their non-routers.

    • Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip
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      17 hours ago

      It sounds like you should still be able to buy stuff, I don’t believe it takes active effect immediately

    • Successful_Try543@feddit.org
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      16 hours ago

      It only applies to router models that aren’t approved by FCC yet. I.e., you will be able allowed to buy those (current and future) models who already have an FCC approval.