USB Key Hardware Firewall

[HardOCP News]

Now this looks pretty snazzy, a hardware firewall on a USB drive.

Yoggie Security Systems has squeezed a complete hardware firewall for Windows systems into a USB key sized form-factor. The "Yoggie Pico" runs Linux 2.6 along with 13 security applications on a 520MHz PXA270, a powerful Intel processor popular in smartphones and other high-end consumer devices.

 

[LeTUOtter]

Damn, I need this for work. Our small network has NO security implemented, and apparently they'd rather pay some local tech who has to google all his answers instead of just letting me revamp it. Hell, I'm doing my CAD work on a freaking Athlon core. :-\
Anything that I can get working on my computer would be nice.

 

[willyspuddle]

Yes it sounds cool, but how is it better than a DLink604 Router ($25.00), for the average consumer?

I often reconfirm my thoughts on a computer issue with Google.
Intelligence is not "knowing all the answers", but rather just knowing where to find them.

Cheers!

 

[LeTUOtter]

I often reconfirm my thoughts on a computer issue with Google.

And no slight intended on your computer expertise. But I mean this guy doesn't even know the most basic stuff about installing and maintaining a network. Costs add up when we have to call him in to fix a problem every other day.
And a $25 router would likely fix that problem, but I can't go installing new hardware in our office, as much as I want to.

 

[friedmud]

Guys... this _isn't_ a "hardware" firewall.... it's a software firewall that is hardware assisted. It is really no better than just installing a software firewall (like norton, zone alarm or whatever else) on your machine. In fact, it is almost certainly worse.

For one thing note this:

"Once running, the Pico establishes an SSL (secure sockets layer) http connection to Yoggie's central servers, where it checks for updated firewall policies and rule sets, Touboul said. It subsequently checks every every five minutes, by default. "

This is a _really_ bad idea. You are giving a device that operates as a black box below the OS's reach the ability to go grab whatever it wants off their servers and run it. Imagine if their servers were broken into? The hackers could own every single machine that was using one of these within 5 minutes.

Or what if this company turns out to not be such a respectable company? They can _really_ track your web habits and upload them every five minutes to their servers... talk about spyware!

No... this is a really bad idea. Either you have a hardware firewall (which is separate from your computer) or you should use a software firewall from a respected and well known commpany (Norton, McAfee... etc).

Paying $180 plus $30 a year to give them the ability to root your machine is just a terrible idea.

Friedmud

 

[Manny Calavera]

friedmud I understand your concerns,but this seems just a little alarmist and extreme

 

[kevlinsky]

Friedmud does raise an interesting question. How scrutable is the company Yoggie Security Systems? They have already had a product, the gatekeeper, on the market for nine months, and from the looks of it, the pico is a miniaturized version of the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper is a hardware firewall that can also plug via USB to act like the pico does. The article would have certainly mentioned if there were publically-known problems with this system. Yoggie Security is probably not on anyone's radar though, so any impropriety on their part might have gone unnoticed, and hackers might not even have been aware of them.

What happens when the Yoggi checks for updates? The article that "it checks for updated firewall policies and rule sets." Can some more software be slipped in there? Can a simple "rule set" be somehow turned into malware? The system seems like a black box. It is nice that firewall features are offloaded from the PC; you could think of this as a portable router that goes with you and monitors all your connections. However, is this worth $180 and $30 a year after the first year? With dual core processors and quad cores on the horizon, the impact from antivirus/firewall software will probably be minimized, and such products will not be all that useful for the average user. At the price, I can only see enterprises interested in this product, because it offers a way for them to be truly in control of the firewall policies. Also, it might make stuff more idiot-proof, as it contains VPN features, so the morons who can't figure out how to run a PC without breaking their Cisco VPN software can use it.

 

[LeTUOtter]

With dual core processors and quad cores on the horizon, the impact from antivirus/firewall software will probably be minimized, and such products will not be all that useful for the average user.

Forgive my ignorance, but why does the multiple cores negate the advantage of anti-virus/anti-spyware products? Is it just too hard to write viruses for multi-core computers (cause I don't believe that for a second...)?

 

[MrGuy]

I find it interesting that they would use nearly the same hardware design and operating system design as a project started almost a year ago, and freely documented on the web.... I know because I was on the team for the project.

http://seniord.ece.iastate.edu/may0710/index.shtml

 

[kevlinsky]

Forgive my ignorance, but why does the multiple cores negate the advantage of anti-virus/anti-spyware products? Is it just too hard to write viruses for multi-core computers (cause I don't believe that for a second...)?

I meant the disadvantages of such software. The primary advantage of the pico is that it offloads firewall functions from the system. With a multi-core processor, it is easier to devote resources to anti-virus/firewalls, especially since most programs are still single-threaded.