The US government has launched a national-security investigation into TP-Link, the China-founded router maker whose equipment now dominates the American market and has been targeted in repeated Chinese cyber attacks, people familiar with the matter said.
The probe opens a new front in the US push to crack down on China-linked technology firms deemed a possible threat to US networks and data. It singles out a company that had largely escaped national-security notice even as TP-Link came to lead the market for home and small-office routers, which relay information from the internet to devices such as computers and smartphones.
Investigators from the Commerce Department subpoenaed TP-Link this month seeking details including its company structure, according to the people,