Review: Yoggie Pico Pro security appliance

The Yoggie Pico Pro includes 128MB of memory and a 520MHz Xscale CPU that runs dedicated security software, forming a barrier between your PC and the outside world.

The Yoggie's dedicated processor runs all its security systems independently of your PC's CPU. This means all the time your PC would have spent running a firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing and anti-spam software, can now be spent on what is was supposed to be doing - running your programs.

It also forms a physical barrier between your PC and the internet. Network data must first enter the system via your network adapter, but this traffic is then isolated from your operating system by the Yoggie, which looks at it before your PC's operating system.

Once the Yoggie's software has been installed, the PC won't be able to connect to the network unless the Yoggie is plugged in, and the software cannot be easily removed without a password. So if you've set up parental controls or web filtering, for example, these can't be circumvented by unplugging the device.

The Yoggie will prevent malware from attacking your PC via the network, but it doesn't protect it from infection via other methods, such as removable drives. To complete the security setup, a one-year subscription to Kaspersky Lab's anti-virus is provided. The internal software is downloaded automatically from the internet.

Because all network traffic is diverted via USB and processed, there is a performance penalty when using the Yoggie that might be noticed on high-speed wired networks, although the maximum 20Mbits/sec throughput is more than enough for all but the fastest internet connections and the performance gains from not running security software can more than make up for this.