FCC Bans All Foreign-Made Consumer Router Imports

The FCC just dropped a major policy hammer. The agency announced it's banning imports of all new foreign-made consumer routers, pointing to security risks baked into the hardware Americans use to connect to the internet.

The move is massive in scope. Chinese manufacturers are estimated to control more than 60% of the US home router market. That's a staggering share of critical networking infrastructure now effectively cut off from new imports.

The ban targets new devices only, so existing routers already in homes and on store shelves aren't being pulled. But the pipeline of cheap foreign-made networking gear flowing into the US market is getting shut down.

Router security has been a growing concern for years. These devices sit at the gateway of every home network, handling all traffic in and out. A compromised router means a compromised everything.