Secure network edge protection for IoT using an open-source next-generation router

The Challenge

The router is the single most exposed device on any network — industry reporting has put routers at over 75% of infected devices — yet router software is typically closed, ageing and slow to patch. As the European movement towards a human-centric internet built on privacy, trust, transparency, security and inclusivity gathered pace, rebuilding such core internet components became a priority: router vendors, ISPs and IoT integrators needed an open, security-first alternative to closed gateway stacks.

The Solution

NQM’s answer was EDGESec: an open-source implementation of a next-generation router, designed with security in mind and with a particular focus on IoT security. NQM applied its secure-gateway lineage (seeded by the NCSC IOTSecHub project) to produce a modular router security toolset — device identification, per-device network segregation, secure onboarding and traffic capture/analysis at the edge.

Outcomes

The project delivered the EDGESec source code on GitHub under an MIT open-source licence, developer documentation and a Doxygen C API at edgesec.info, and working ports to commodity hardware (Raspberry Pi 3 B+/4 B, PC Engines apu2, NVIDIA Jetson Nano). Because the stack is fully open, any ISP, router vendor or IoT gateway developer can adopt it without licence barriers — bringing modern, patchable, security-first software to the most attacked device class on the network. EDGESec was launched publicly in October 2021, showcased at Infosec Europe 2022, and its components fed forward into NQM’s ManySecured/SNbD secure-router portfolio.