Customer premises equipment, or CPE, is the hardware installed on the customer side of a service link. In fiber-to-the-home setups, this often includes an optical network terminal, gateway, or modem that terminates the provider’s line and hands traffic to local devices. CPE matters because it sits at a security boundary: it bridges the provider network and the user environment, so it can influence authentication, routing, firmware trust, and physical access control.
In cyber security, CPE is a common point of weakness and defense. Attackers may target exposed management interfaces, default credentials, outdated firmware, or misconfigured remote administration to gain control or intercept traffic. Defenders reduce risk by hardening the device, restricting administration, keeping firmware updated, and monitoring for unauthorized changes. Because CPE is both network equipment and an endpoint in the access path, its integrity strongly affects the trustworthiness of the whole connection.