Icon Labs Floodgate Embedded Firewall now available for Freescale Processors

Icon Labs Floodgate Embedded Firewall now available for Freescale

Processors Floodgate firewall protects Freescale Semiconductor’s processors and microcontrollers running the MQX™ operating system from network attacks. 

San Antonio, Texas, June 20, 2012 –

Icon Labs (www.iconlabs.com), a leading provider of embedded networking and security technology, today announced the integration of  Icon Labs’ Floodgate Packet Filter, an embedded software firewall with Freescale Semiconductor’s MQX Operating System running on its Kinetis®, Vybrid™, Coldfire® and PowerQUICC® families of microprocessors and microcontrollers (MCUs).   

Floodgate™ Packet Filter provides a critical layer of security that provides critical protection against Internet-based attacks targeting embedded devices.  Floodgate provides rules-based filtering allowing whitelisting and blacklisting based on criteria such as port number, protocol, or source IP address. Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) provides dynamic packet filtering based on the state of a connection.  Threshold-based filtering protects against denial of service attacks, broadcast storms, and other conditions that result in a flood of unwanted packets.


“Firewalls have long been a cornerstone of security in home and enterprise networks, but have been suspiciously absent for embedded systems until now,” said John Weil, Segment Marketing and Operations manager for Freescale’s Industrial Microcontroller & Multi-market business.   “We are pleased to have Floodgate available for our customers running MQX on Kinetis, Vybrid, Coldfire and PowerQUICC processors and MCUs, providing protection against a wide range of attacks and closing critical security loopholes.”   


“Embedded devices connected to the Internet are no longer immune from hackers and other malicious threats.  Attacks against embedded devices have become front page news,” said Alan Grau, President of Icon Labs.  “We are fortunate to be partnering with Freescale to bring embedded firewall security to a broad range of embedded devices.”


Researchers from Columbia University’s Intrusion Detection Systems Lab have shown embedded devices are far more vulnerable to Internet-based threats than Enterprise Networks. The researchers have established a global average vulnerability rate for devices such as home routers, cable modems, and webcams, of 41.62% compared to 2.46% for enterprise devices. As network connectivity in embedded devices has become commonplace and our reliance on these devices has grown, so has the importance of protecting these devices from Internet-based threats.

About Icon Laboratories, Inc

.Icon Labs is a leading provider of embedded networking and security solutions.  Icon Labs award-winning software is at work at work every day, from broadband Internet access devices to core network routers, from smart modems to optical cross-connects, and from the factory floor to the operating room. Founded in 1992, Icon Labs is headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa.

For more information, visit www.iconlabs.com, send email to info@iconlabs.com , or call 1.888.235.3443 (U.S. and Canada) or 515.226.3443 (International).

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