FCC to allow banned drones and routers to receive critical updates until 2029
Source: Mashable SEA
Published on: 2026-05-10 16:22
The FCC just threw American consumers a two-year lifeline, but don't expect it to go much beyond that. Good news for owners of foreign-made drones and routers: the Federal Communications Commission has amended its original deadline that would have banned firmware updates to these devices after March 1, 2027. In an announcement posted on May 8, 2026, the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) updated its previous guidance to allow new software and firmware updates to foreign-made drones and routers until January 1, 2029, adding nearly two years to the initial cut-off date. The main concerns cited by the American government are espionage, unauthorized surveillance, and data exfiltration, all of which can be enabled by backdoor exploits built directly into both drones and routers. The most famous example of such a cyberattack is the ongoing Volt Typhoon "advanced persistent thr...
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