Routers Behaving Badly
Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons Podcast
US Ban on Foreign-Made Routers Explained
Kerry reads The Verge's Q&A about the FCC router ban, its scope, and practical and political implications.
The US is planning to ban all foreign-made or foreign-designed home WiFi routers… which is basically all routers. It’s true that many consumer routers are pretty crappy when it comes to security. TP-Link just fixed some bad vulnerabilities (which you need to patch ASAP). But what does this mean for anyone wanting to upgrade to a new router? I’ll try to explain.
In other news: Walmart is buying TV-maker Vizio to gain access to user data and ads; a company is turning public Zoom meetings into AI podcasts for profit (without permission); a health company suffers a data breach exposing millions of clients’ information; H&R Block’s latest business tax prep software commits an egregious security mistake; AI companies are rolling out dangerous automation features; macOS 26.4 appears to block ClickFix-style attacks; and Facebook and Google lose in a landmark legal case.
Article Links
- Walmart buying TV-brand Vizio for its ad-fueling customer data: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/walmart-buying-tv-brand-vizio-for-its-ad-fueling-customer-data
- This Company Is Secretly Turning Your Zoom Meetings into AI Podcasts: https://www.404media.co/this-company-is-secretly-turning-your-zoom-calls-into-ai-podcasts
- This Massive Data Breach Leaked 2.7 Million Social Security Numbers: https://lifehacker.com/tech/navia-data-breach-social-security-numbers
- These critical exploits just exposed a bigger problem with TP-Link routers: https://www.makeuseof.com/tp-link-critical-exploits-expose-bigger-security-concerns
- H&R Block’s Tax Prep Blunder: What You Must Know About the 2025 Certificate Vulnerability: https://twit.tv/posts/tech/hr-blocks-tax-prep-blunder-what-you-must-know-about-2025-certificate-vulnerability
- This New Claude Feature Can Automate Basically Everything on Your Mac, but It’s a Huge Security Risk: https://lifehacker.com/tech/claude-computer-use-impressions
- The United States router ban, explained: https://www.theverge.com/tech/899906/fcc-router-ban-march-2026-explainer
- macOS 26.4 warning about potentially malicious Terminal commands: https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/03/26/macos-264-warning-about-potentially-malicious-terminal-commands
- Meta, Google lose US case over social media harm to kids: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/jury-reaches-verdict-meta-google-trial-social-media-addiction-2026-03-25
Further Info
- Freeze Your Credit: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/credit-freeze-now-is-the-time/
- Security Now on H&R Block fiasco: https://youtu.be/JebKuiHu5mg?si=EuXRT9PeKLl1l3oT&t=701
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Table of Contents
- 0:00:07: Intro
- 0:01:03: News rundown
- 0:03:17: Walmart buys Vizio for ads, data
- 0:08:57: Public Zoom calls secretly turned into podcasts
- 0:17:24: Navia leaks millions of SSNs
- 0:20:28: TP-Link router vulnerabilities
- 0:36:25: H&R Block’s horrific tax software
- 0:45:41: New Claude Mac feature is too dangerous
- 0:48:22: macOS 24 blocks ClickFix?
- 0:50:44: Facebook, Google lose huge lawsuit
- 0:54:22: Patron podcast preview
- 0:54:58: Looking ahead
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