TP-Link is one of the most popular brands in the US, but it may not be available in the country for much longer.
Investigators at the Departments of Commerce, Defense, and Justice all opened probes into TP-Link routers in 2024 due to their ties to Chinese cyberattacks. More than half a dozen federal departments and agencies are now backing a ban.
Prosecutors in the Department of Justice’s antitrust division are also investigating whether TP-Link engaged in predatory pricing tactics, which involve selling goods below cost to wedge out competition, according to an April Bloomberg report.
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TP-Link is one of the most popular router brands out there, and it dominates the budget router category. In CNET's Wi-Fi router testing, TP-Link's routers generally performed in the middle of the pack, but few offered better value for the prices.
A potential ban is more about the company’s links to China than specific security issues that have been publicly identified, according to cybersecurity researchers I spoke with.
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TP-Link was founded in 1996 by brothers Zhao Jianjun and Zhao Jiaxing in Shenzhen, China. In October of last year, it moved its headquarters to Irvine, California, two months after the House announced an investigation into the company. The company told CNET it had previously operated dual headquarters, in Singapore and Irvine.
In the House's Select Committee on China hearing, Rob Joyce, former director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency, also told the committee that TP-Link routers are a threat to US cybersecurity.
"We need to all take action and replace those devices so they don't become the tools that are used in the attacks on the US," Joyce said.
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