US wants to ban TP-Link routers due to risk of cyberespionage

United States government officials are worried that TP-Link routers could be used to launch attacks on the US infrastructure, and collect public information from home router systems as well. Therefore they want a ban on TP-Link routers in the coming year.
TP-Link is a tech company that manufactures WiFi routers, WiFi network devices, WiFi mesh routers, wireless access points, Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, and related hardware and software components for corporate networks.
The fact that TP-Link’s headquarter is located in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is what worries government officials for quite some time.
In the Summer of 2024, John Moolenaar (D-IL) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (R-MI), two members of Congress, wrote a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. They expressed their concerns of potential cybersecurity risks, calling TP-Link’s routers a “glaring national security issue”.
“When combined with the PRC government’s common use of SOHO [small office/home office, ed.] routers like TP-Link to perpetrate extensive cyberattacks in the United States, it becomes significantly alarming,” the Congressmen said.
So far, no action has been taken, and Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi find that worrisome. TP-Link has a 65% share of the US router market, which poses a serious threat to America’s national security.
“The PRC has every intent to collect data on Americans and they will, why give them another backdoor?,” Krishnamoorthi told CNBC.
A spokesman for the majority of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party told the news outlet that TP-Link routers pose a cyberespionage risk to Americans. Plus, the Chinese government could order the company to perform a full-scale hacking campaign against the United States.
“Because of this, we hope to see TP-link routers banned in the coming year, coupled with programs to replace existing Chinese routers with safe American alternatives,” the spokesperson said.
Guy Segal, vice president of corporate development at cybersecurity services company Sygnia, acknowledges that TP-Link’s dominant position in the US could raise security concerns.
“The pervasiveness of this technology and the potential risks associated with it do present security concerns for users that should be taken seriously, whether at the consumer level or a national security consideration for government entities,” he told CNBC.
Chinese tech companies have been a thorn in the US government’s side for a while. Back in 2020, the government mandated that US companies would get rid of Huawei communications equipment as they posed a national security threat.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington has always called any accusations of cyberattacks and cyberespionage by TP-Link routers “groundless speculations and allegations”. The PRC’s ministry in the United States didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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