D-Link Corporation is a Taiwanese multinational networking equipment manufacturing corporation headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. It was founded in March 1986 in Taipei as Datex Systems Inc.
History
D-Link Corporation changed its name from Datex Systems Inc. in 1994, when it went public and when it became the first networking company on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. It is now publicly traded on the TSEC and NSE stock exchanges. In 1988, Datex Systems Inc. released the industry's first peer-to-peer LANSmart Network Operating System, able to run concurrently with early networking systems such as Novell's NetWare and TCP/IP which most small network operating systems could not do at the time. In 2007, it was the leading networking company in the small to medium business segment worldwide with 21.9% market share. In March 2008, it became the market leader in Wi-Fi product shipments worldwide, with 33% of the total market. In 2007, the company was featured in the "Info Tech 100", a listing of the world's best IT companies. It was also ranked as the 9th best IT company in the world for shareholder returns by BusinessWeek.. In the same year, D-Link was released one of the first Wi-Fi Certified 802.11n draft 2.0 Wi-Fi router, which subsequently became one of the most successful draft 802.11n routers. In 2013, D-Link released its flagship draft 802.11ac Wireless AC1750 Dual-Band Router which attained the fastest ever wireless throughput tested by SmallNetBuilder as of May, 2013. In April 2019, D-Link was named "Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure".
Product range
D-Link's products are geared towards the networking and communications market. Its business products include switches, surveillance network cameras, firewalls, iSCSI SANs and business wireless, while consumer products cover consumer wireless devices, broadband devices, and the Digital Home devices.
Examples of D-Link products
Vulnerabilities
In January 2010, it was reported that HNAP vulnerabilities had been found on some D-Link routers. D-Link was also criticized for their response which was deemed confusing as to which models were affected and downplayed the seriousness of the risk. In January 2013, version v1.13 for the DIR-100 revA was reported to include a backdoor in the firmware. By passing a specific user agent in an HTTP request to the router, normal authentication is bypassed. It was reported that this backdoor had been present for some time. Computerworld reported in January 2015 that ZynOS, a firmware used by some D-Link routers, are vulnerable to DNS hijacking by an unauthenticated remote attacker, specifically when remote management is enabled. Later in 2015, it was reported that D-Link leaked the private keys used to sign firmware updates for the DCS-5020L security camera and a variety of other D-Link products. The key expired in September 2015, but had been published online for seven months. Also in 2015, D-Link was criticized for more HNAP vulnerabilities, and worse, introducing new vulnerabilities in their "fixed" firmware updates. On 5 January 2017, the Federal Trade Commission sued D-Link for failing to take reasonable steps to secure their routers and IP cameras. As D-Link marketing was misleading customers into believing their products were secure. The complaint also says security gaps could allow hackers to watch and record people on their D-Link cameras without their knowledge, target them for theft, or record private conversations. D-Link has denied these accusations and has enlisted Cause of Action Institute to file a motion against the FTC for their "baseless" charges. On 2 July 2019, the case was settled with D-Link not found to be liable for any of the alleged violations. D-Link agreed to continue to make security enhancements in its software security program and software development, with biennial, independent, third-party assessments, approved by the FTC.
Server misuse
In 2006, D-Link was accused of NTP vandalism, when it was found that its routers were sending time requests to a small NTP server in Denmark, incurring thousands of dollars of costs to its operator. D-Link initially refused to accept responsibility. Later, D-link products were found also to be abusing other time servers, including some operated by the US military and NASA.
GPL violation
On 6 September 2006, the gpl-violations.org project prevailed in court litigation against D-Link Germany GmbH regarding D-Link's alleged inappropriate and copyright infringing use of parts of the Linux kernel.
