Mocana Corporation –The Device Security Framework and the Internet of Things

WHAT IS THIS TECHNOLOGY?

The rate at which devices are proliferating is staggering. Forrester predicts that the number of devices connecting to the network will skyrocket to 14 billion by 2010 – with 95% of these being something other than a PC. Whether you call this phenomenon "the network of devices" or the “Internet of things,” the underlying message is the same – an increase in connected devices opens up a new frontier for security attack…the device itself. Mocana offers software for devices that secures all aspects of data and communications via it’s Device Security Framework offering, a security suite that comprises 10 embeddable component.

WHAT DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY DO?

Mocana offers device manufacturers and service providers a holistic approach for securing all aspects of connected devices. The Device Security Framework is a security suite that comprises 10 embeddable components available individually or as a bundle. Components include:

• IPsec & IKE: provides data confidentiality, integrity and authentication between networked peers at the IP layer
• SSL / TLS: provides endpoint authentication
• SSH: operates at a higher level in the OSI stack than IPsec.
• Remote Authentication Dial In User Server (RADIUS): an AAA (authentication, authorization and accounting) protocol used for network access or mobility applications
• EAP: acts as a framework and transport mechanism for AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) protocols.

The Device Security Framework offers high levels of scalability and performance and an extremely small footprint so that device power is not impacted. This also enables device manufacturers to (re) introduce features they might not have been able to include when using software with a larger footprint.

The major components of this extensible framework include a common abstraction layer, a common cryptography library, and efficient security protocol implementations. Additional
capabilities will be added in 2008.

The abstraction layer is a major feature that enables portability of Mocana's solution across different chips and operating systems (OS). This software layer has portions devoted to OS and chip integration - a dual approach that enables Mocana to support a new OS within hours of request and also enables the inheritance of existing chips to the new OS and vice versa. The cryptography library's key algorithms are Federal Information Standards (FIPS) validated and the
security protocols are open standards based and RFC compliant.

Another key component of the Framework is the Mocana Acceleration Harness. This software module enables the cryptographic operations to be handled separately and efficiently by hardware acceleration processing elements, which are becoming a standard feature in chips
these days. These accelerators enable asynchronous processing of complex software such as cryptographic modules independent of the central processing unit (CPU) thus enabling the CPU to process other tasks in parallel. This is particularly important for high performance datacom equipment as well as battery powered devices at the edge of the network.

Conclusion: The Device Security Framework enables device manufacturers and service providers to meet customer requirements for secure device management and ensures enterprises that their devices are secure and are not placing corporate data at risk. The end user of any device equipped with the Device Security Framework is guaranteed security.

Mocana Corporation
350 Sansome Street, Suite 210
San Francisco, CA 94104 USA
Tel: +1-(415) 617-0055

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