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Florida sues TP-Link for ‘lying about the safety of its routers’ — state claims that manufacturer misrepresented its security and ties to China TP-Link is estimated to have 50% to 65% of the consumer router market in the U.S. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier just announced that the state is suing TP-Link, claiming that the company has been “lying about the safety of its routers and its ties to the CCP.” Uthmeier posted a minute-and-a-half video clip on X, saying that TP-Link’s claims of having safe routers aren’t true. “Chinese state-sponsored hackers exploited TP-Link routers sitting in American living rooms. Many of those models cannot even update themselves automatically, and TP-Link has stopped supporting them,” the Florida AG said on the social media platform. “They also told Floridians they have split from China and that they build U.S. products in Vietnam, but that is fiction. Research and manufacturing remain rooted in China, less than 1% of the parts in that Vietnam plant actually come from Vietnam. TP-Link now claims to have separated from a company with Chinese ties — a company the Pentagon has designated as an arm of the Chinese military.” The federal government first investigated the company back in 2024, with the Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, and Department of Justice opening inquiries into the company, with the DOJ looking at whether the company has engaged in unfair trade practices and poses a threat to national security. The company has tried to fight these allegations, especially as it points out that TP-Link in the U.S. has already separated from its Chinese parent company in 2024, and that it has been making its routers in Vietnam since 2018. Unlike Huawei, TP-Link has been able to avoid a full ban in the United States. However, it’s currently facing a major challenge as the FCC has banned the import of new consumer routers. This ban would affect all router manufacturers, including American brands such as Cisco and Netgear, but they were able to go around this by applying for a conditional approval. TP-Link itself applied for this exemption, too, but it’s unclear if it has received one so far. But even if TP-Link hasn’t secured a conditional approval yet, it could continue selling its already existing router models in the U.S. Florida isn’t the only state to file a case against TP-Link because of its alleged connections to Beijing and the safety of its routers. Iowa, Nebraska, and Montana have also sued the company for exactly the same reasons, and their attorneys general say that they’re doing it to protect their citizens from the Chinese Communist Party. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics. - TechieTwo It's been known for quite awhile that TP-Link and most other brands of consumer grade routers are very insecure and dangerous.Reply - Lieutenant Barclay Florida is a total clown state and probably just as corrupt as anywhere in China.Reply - USAFRet TechieTwo said:It's been known for quite awhile that TP-Link and most other brands of consumer grade routers are very insecure and dangerous.OK, so which consumer level routers are 'secure'? Reply - Moonstick2 Here's the rhetoric of the opener of the Florida complaint: What the consumer says to the internet comes out of the router’s mouth, and what the internet says back goes through the router’s ears. If compromised, it can whisper lies in both directions, Truly inspired. Never could more powerful words be spoken from anyone's ears. The content of the complaint is basically: They're Chinese. They use Chinese components. They've had some CVEs. They don't update old routers. Er.... That's it!The bulk of the complaint amounts to claiming that it is a deceptive and unfair practice to describe your product as secure if any of your products have ever had a CVE, especially if one was ever exploited by a Chinese state actor. Reply - coolitic TechieTwo said:It's been known for quite awhile that TP-Link and most other brands of consumer grade routers are very insecure and dangerous.You'd think that something as simple in function as a router would be easy to secure (hint: they are, as open-source options manage just fine). Combine that w/ the fact that routers have been widely exploited for so long, and it really just comes off as super negligent. Reply - greenreaper And are we doing anything about the Tapo line of home security equipment, a TP-Link brand? Networked cameras and microphones in your homes, with cloud hosting of recordings...Reply - loveday.ben coolitic said:You'd think that something as simple in function as a router would be easy to secure (hint: they are, as open-source options manage just fine). Combine that w/ the fact that routers have been widely exploited for so long, and it really just comes off as super negligent.Are you for real? Honestly this lawsuit is garbage and should justify them suing every other US company for the same thing. No surprises it's from Florida though. Reply - bill001g Do we really want a politicians and lawyers making technical decisions. Likely is they are insecure like almost every other router. The one that he complains about is the router does automatically update. This guy must be a idiot and have his assistant key in his email and not use a computer. Almost everyone I know have had microsoft bust something when they force updates. The best solution is make very simple routers that only do NAT. Less features less code to hack. Make then open source like asus does for some of their models. Reply - das_stig USAFRet said:OK, so which consumer level routers are 'secure'?None, they are all too open for ease of use of consumers. You need hardware running something like OPNSense that by design is as secure as they can make it, open code so people can see what is going on and verify nothing dodgy is happening and fix bugs asap. problem is OPNSense is not consumer friendly to configure, maybe they could remove all the features that nobody needs and produce a Lite version ? Reply
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