Linux-like security on a USB stick

New York (USA) – An all-in-one security device contained inside a USB stick. This is what the small American company Yoggie created, which managed to miniaturize its previous product, called Gatekeeper, dedicated to the protection of notebooks and desktops.

The new device, “Pico”, it is based on the Linux 2.6 kernel and includes 13 different security applications : among these firewalls, antivirus, antispam, proxies, parental controls and intrusion detection systems.

The key hides a 520 MHz ARM PXA270 processor 128 MB of flash memory and an additional 128 MB of RAM: this allows the security applications included in the device to run and operate autonomously from the PC , without affecting the hardware resources of the latter. This approach, according to the New York company, also allows you to bypass any Windows vulnerabilities.

“Pico offers all PC and laptop users complete enterprise-grade protection against Internet threats, such as hacking, viruses, malware, worms and other attacks,” proclaims the American company. “All this while saving CPU, memory and disk space”.

Unlike Gatekeeper, which included two RJ45 ports and a 12 Mbps USB port, Pico includes only one USB 2.0 port which, thanks to a low-level driver for Windows, is able to filter network traffic at level 2 and 3 of the ISO / OSI stack. Using the USB interface allows Pico to intercept and analyze packets from any type of network connection wired (dial-up, ADSL, fiber etc.) or wireless (WiFi, GPRS, UMTS etc.).

Yoggie has already promised the development of drivers that will allow its “Swiss Army Knife” to be used with Linux and Mac OS X as well. A technical description of how Pico works is provided by Yoggie on this page.

The key will be sold in a couple of weeks in the Personal edition, aimed at consumer users, and Pro, dedicated instead to business users: the price will be 179 and 199 dollars respectively and will include a license for use valid for one year.