{"id":1165,"date":"2026-02-18T04:29:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/18\/texas-ag-sues-tp-link-over-purported-connection-to-china\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T04:29:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:29:03","slug":"texas-ag-sues-tp-link-over-purported-connection-to-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/18\/texas-ag-sues-tp-link-over-purported-connection-to-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas AG sues TP-Link over purported connection to China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Texas is suing Wi-Fi router maker TP-Link for deceptively marketing the security of its products and allowing Chinese hacking groups to access Americans&#8217; devices, Attorney General Ken Paxton <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/news\/releases\/attorney-general-paxton-sues-tp-link-allowing-ccp-access-americans-devices-first-several-lawsuits\" data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\">has announced<\/a>. Paxton originally started <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/news\/releases\/attorney-general-ken-paxton-investigates-whether-major-tech-company-allowing-chinese-government\" data-i13n=\"slk:looking into TP-Link;cpos:2;pos:1\">looking into TP-Link<\/a> in October 2025. Texas Governor Greg Abbott later prohibited state employees <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/gov.texas.gov\/news\/post\/governor-abbott-updates-texas-prohibited-technologies-list\" data-i13n=\"slk:from using TP-Link products;cpos:3;pos:1\">from using TP-Link products<\/a> in January of this year. <\/p>\n<p>TP-Link is no longer owned by a Chinese company and its products are assembled in Vietnam, but <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/press\/TP%20P.pdf\" data-i13n=\"cpos:4;pos:1\">Paxton&#8217;s lawsuit<\/a> claims that because the company&#8217;s &#8220;ownership and supply-chain are tied to China&#8221; it&#8217;s subject to the country&#8217;s data laws, which require companies to comply with requests from Chinese intelligence agencies. The lawsuit also says that firmware vulnerabilities in TP-Link&#8217;s hardware have already &#8220;exposed millions of consumers to severe cybersecurity risks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>TP-Link provided the following statement to Engadget in response to the lawsuit: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The claims made by the Texas Attorney General\u2019s office are without merit and will be proven false. TP-Link Systems Inc. is an independent American company. Neither the Chinese government nor the CCP exercises any form of ownership or control over TP-Link, its products, or its user data. TP-Link\u2019s founder and CEO, Jeffrey Chao, resides in Irvine, CA, and is not and never has been a member of the CCP. To ensure the highest level of security, our core operations and infrastructure are located entirely within the United States, and all U.S. users&#8217; networking data is stored securely on Amazon Web Services servers. We will continue to vigorously defend our reputation as a trusted provider of secure connectivity for American families.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>TP-Link was <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/cybersecurity\/tp-link-routers-are-being-investigated-by-several-us-authorities-151552304.html\" data-i13n=\"slk:reportedly being investigated;cpos:5;pos:1\">reportedly being investigated<\/a> at the federal level in 2024 after its devices were connected to the massive <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/cybersecurity\/new-report-details-vast-spying-by-china-linked-telecom-hackers-010347224.html\" data-i13n='slk:\"Salt Typhoon\" hack;cpos:6;pos:1'>&#8220;Salt Typhoon&#8221; hack<\/a> that accessed data from multiple US telecom companies. Despite all signs pointing to the federal government <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/cybersecurity\/us-government-is-getting-closer-to-banning-tp-link-routers-145528317.html\" data-i13n=\"cpos:7;pos:1\">getting ready to ban<\/a> TP-Link in 2025, <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/media-telecom\/us-china-trade-detente-fuels-mothballing-key-china-tech-curbs-2026-02-12\/\" data-i13n=\"cpos:8;pos:1\"><em>Reuters<\/em> reports<\/a> that the Trump administration paused plans to ban the company\u2019s routers in early February, ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update, February 17, 3:38PM ET: <\/strong>Added statement from TP-Link.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/cybersecurity\/texas-ag-sues-tp-link-over-purported-connection-to-china-193802258.html?src=rss<\/p><p>Please credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/obagg.com\">OBA Blog<\/a> &raquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/18\/texas-ag-sues-tp-link-over-purported-connection-to-china\/\">Texas AG sues TP-Link over purported connection to China<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas is suing Wi-Fi router maker TP-Link for deceptively marketing the security of its products and allowing Chinese hacking groups to access Americans&#8217; devices, Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced. Paxton originally started looking into TP-Link in October 2025. Texas Governor Greg Abbott later prohibited state employees from using TP-Link products in January of this year. TP-Link is no longer owned by a Chinese company and its products are assembled in Vietnam, but Paxton&#8217;s lawsuit claims that because the company&#8217;s &#8220;ownership and supply-chain are tied to China&#8221; it&#8217;s subject to the country&#8217;s data laws, which require companies to comply with requests from Chinese intelligence agencies. The lawsuit also says that firmware vulnerabilities in TP-Link&#8217;s hardware have already &#8220;exposed millions of consumers to severe cybersecurity risks.&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-share"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}