Everyone's worried that someone, somewhere will be trying to hack their laptop and steal their identify. Of course you need to be careful but for a lot of people, all those security applications running on a modest computer do eat up resources and wasn't really why you bought the thing in the first place. Israeli security company Yoggie aims to change that with a little dongle that will do the security dirty work instead. 

The Yoggie Gatekeeper Pico is a small USB device that isn't much bigger than a normal memory stick. But inside this isn't just a bit of memory - it's a fully-fledged computer in itself. It sports a chip running at 520MHz (which going back ten years used to power a normal computer) and a hardened Linux operating system (which means it shouldn't get hacked itself. This functions as a security device with 12 separate security applications running on it to make sure the bad guys don't get in.

Among the applications are anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware and anti-phishing. This is also a firewall, and intrusion detection system and intrusion prevention system. What the device does is hide your PC away from the internet and sets up a barrier between your laptop and the big bad world.

Installation is very quick and setting up with our test laptop running Windows XP only took minutes to do. (We have heard that Vista support for the USB driver is on its way).

You configure the thing via a password-protected web interface which displays security stats in a dashboard style. You can look at which security features are running and even run reports (if that's your thing!)

The options are easy for anyone to use without having to be a security expert.

Also included in the rice is a one-year's subscription so the thing can update itself against the latest threats.

As security is running on the device and not on your laptop, it is one of these devices that doesn't slow your computer down. We didn't notice any slow down of our internet connection when surfing the net.

Overall, you get the best of both worlds - cutting edge security without the performance hit.

Rating: 9/10