ASUS—ASUS settled with FTC over insecure routers that put hundreds of thousands of consumers' home networks at risk
The FTC charged ASUS with failing to secure its routers, leaving hundreds of thousands of consumers' home networks vulnerable. ASUS routers had critical security flaws including default login credentials and a cloud service (AiCloud) that stored login credentials in plain text. ASUS agreed to a 20-year consent decree requiring independent security audits.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer Protection | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| User Privacy | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.443 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)× agency (negligent ×0.5)
Evidence (1 signal)
FTC charged ASUS with insecure router practices, imposed 20-year consent decree
The FTC filed a complaint that ASUS routers had critical security flaws including default login credentials and AiCloud storing credentials in plaintext. ASUS agreed to a settlement requiring 20 years of independent security audits.