Connect One has developed a new firewall technology called SecureGAP. The cost effective, firewall-on-chip solution allows M2M devices to be safely connected to the public Internet.

SecureGAP provides security and data segregation which serves as a gatekeeper and natural firewall between the host processor and the Internet, thereby safeguarding the vital proprietary information for application owners. This significantly cuts connectivity costs and also simplifies deployment. SecureGAP technology is implemented on Connect One’s newest and lowest cost IP controller CO2128, which powers Connect One’s entire range of modules and device servers. CO2128 provides Internet connectivity, encryption and superior security for a host processor or device. The CO2128 works as a co-processor, thereby reducing some tasks on the main processor regarding security and communication aspects.


SecureGAP stops intruders from tapping directly into the host processor’s data. It acts as a physical barrier between the public Internet and the application and also encrypts data using SSL3. By using CO2128, it is completely safe to transfer data to and from any host processor over the Internet via 802.11b/g WiFi, 10/100 Based T LAN, GPRS, or dial-up connection. SecureGAP is architecturally designed into the CO2128 as an offload engine. It is technically superior to software firewalls installed on the host CPU. It is the most trustworthy and reliable option for secure and efficient connectivity.

Ariel Shulman, Connect One’s vice president of sales, said in a press release: “Point-of-sale terminals, power meters, medical devices and other embedded systems are increasingly using the public Internet for connectivity, thereby increasing privacy concerns and security risks. SecureGAP completely isolates the application and its data from the Internet, and transmitted data is encrypted using the industry’s best algorithms. With the SecureGAP architecture, Connect One fills a critical hole in today’s M2M networks.”

SecureGAP is built into the firmware of CO2128 and has become a cost-effective alternative to a stand-alone firewall system. It requires no annual fees. It is included with a complete set of low-level drivers, TCP/IP stack and many upper layers protocols, including TCP or UDP (News - Alert) sockets, two listen sockets, Web server with two Web sites, SMTP and POP3 clients, all for free.

CO2128 has the ability to overcome barriers such as development time and complexity when a secure end-to-end embedded M2M IP communications are to be implemented. Connect One’s iChipSec CO2128 uses the AT+i API to offload all security and networking tasks from the host application. Reprogramming of applications by designers is not required. iChipSec CO2128 protects the application from network attacks. It acts as a firewall-in-a-chip. CO2128 has hardware implementation of SSL3/TLS1 with AES-128/256, SHA-128/192/256 & 3DES which secures client socket sessions. CO2128 includes a full secure TCP/IP stack, plus upper layer protocols like SMTP, POP3, MIME, HTTP, WAP, FTP ,TELNET and SerialNet mode for serial-to-IP bridging, and supports LAN, WiFi (News - Alert) and all types of dial-up/wireless modems (AMPS, CDMA, CDMA2000, CDPD, GPRS, GSM, IDEN, and TDMA cellular protocols). A Web server with two websites is also included. One website is for the application and another for configuring iChipSec CO2128. CO2128 is RoHS-compliant and the operational temperature ranges from -40° to 85° C (-40° to 185° F).

Connect One Ltd., which manufactures semiconductors and device servers, was established in 1996. It is widely called the Device Networking Authority. It has many inventions to its credit. These devices provide secure, reliable and robust Internet Protocol-based communication for everyday devices. It has offices at San Jose, Calif., Japan, Hong Kong, and Kfar Saba, Israel.

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Jayashree Adkoli is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.