Routers Behaving Badly

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-dataThis Company Is Secretly Turning Your Zoom Meetings into AI Podcasts: https://www.404media.co/this-company-is-secretly-turning-your-zoom-calls-into-ai-podcastsThis Massive Data Breach Leaked 2.7 Million Social Security Numbers: https://lifehacker.com/tech/navia-data-breach-social-security-numbersThese critical exploits just exposed a bigger problem with TP-Link routers: https://www.makeuseof.com/tp-link-critical-exploits-expose-bigger-security-concernsH&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-vulnerabilityThis New Claude Feature Can Automate Basically Everything on Your Mac, but It’s a Huge Security Risk: https://lifehacker.com/tech/claude-computer-use-impressionsThe United States router ban, explained: https://www.theverge.com/tech/899906/fcc-router-ban-march-2026-explainermacOS 26.4 warning about potentially malicious Terminal commands: https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/03/26/macos-264-warning-about-potentially-malicious-terminal-commandsMeta, 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 My book: https://fdsd.me/book My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch Table of Contents 0:00:07: Intro0:01:03: News rundown0:03:17: Walmart buys Vizio for ads, data0:08:57: Public Zoom calls secretly turned into podcasts0:17:24: Navia leaks millions of SSNs0:20:28: TP-Link router vulnerabilities0:36:25: H&R Block’s horrific tax software0:45:41: New Claude Mac feature is too dangerous0:48:22: macOS 24 blocks ClickFix?0:50:44: Facebook, Google lose huge lawsuit0:54:22: Patron podcast preview0:54:58: Looking ahead