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Germany Proposes Router Security Guidelines (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the interesting-moves dept.

German government would like to regulate what kind of routers are sold and installed across the country. From a report: The German government published at the start of the month an initial draft for rules on securing Small Office and Home Office (SOHO) routers. Published by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the rules have been put together with input from router vendors, German telecoms, and the German hardware community. Once approved, router manufacturers don't have to abide by these requirements, but if they do, they can use a special sticker on their products showing their compliance. The 22-page document, available in English here, lists tens of recommendations and rules for various router functions and features.

1 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Actually, no. Obligatory XKCD. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    xkcd: Free

    AVM, the maker of the most popular router "Fritz!Box" (and for good reasons), will have this on their boxes. Big and fat. They're the type or manufacturer who offers free updates to entirely new versions of their FritzOS, with all new features that the hardware can manage, even years later. Security patches often even are in the local tech news.
    Which means, everyone who doesn't have this certification, has even less of a chance of competing against them.

    There are people here, who pick their ISP based on who gives them the best FritzBox. Not even having a (maybe branded) FritzBox included, is often grounds for exclusion.

    Trust me, this will have an effect on the majority of people in Germany.
    (Provided AVM doesn’t already do all that’s demanded.)