FCC Bans New Foreign-Made Routers Over Supply Chain and Cyber Risk Concerns

The FCC announced a ban on the import and sale of new foreign-made consumer routers in the U.S., citing an Executive Branch national security determination that these devices pose unacceptable supply-chain and cybersecurity risks. The report states that state and non-state actors have exploited insecure home/small-office routers to conduct espionage, network intrusion, and to build botnets (including CovertNetwork-1658/Quad7) used in attacks attributed to China-linked groups such as Volt, Flax, and Salt Typhoon; conditional approvals and limited exceptions (e.g., Starlink routers) are outlined.