Consider. You’re sitting in an airport using the
terminal’s WiFi service. When you connected you noticed that there are
a lot of users in the area with their own WiFi access points set-up as
peer-to-peer. You know better, of course and, besides, you trust your
organization’s security set-up on your company laptop. Or do you?
Wouldn’t it feel nice and comfortable to be safe behind your
organization’s firewall, anti-virus, anti-spam gateway? Out there in
the airport there is nothing to protect you, except your anti-virus
software and personal firewall. Until now.
Now you can, for a
very reasonable price (under $250) have a hardware device that contains
13 security devices, is about the size of a cell phone, and plugs into
your USB port. The Yoggie Gatekeeper includes a firewall, IDS,
anti-spam, anti-phishing, anti-spyware, anti-virus, and a VPN client
among other functions. Each function is a world-class commercial or
open source product, and Yoggie handles all updates for a single price
that is less than the combined cost of updates from individual
providers.
As an example, the anti-virus software is from
Kaspersky, one of the best known anti-virus developers in the business.
The IDS is Snort, well-known to most security professionals as a
stable, full-function IDS tool. Content filtering is from SurfControl.
The entire product runs on an embedded operating environment that the
user can manage but cannot compromise.
How it works
The
Gatekeeper connects to your laptop in one of two ways: redirect or
inline. For redirection you simply connect the attached USB cable to
your laptop as you would any USB connector. The Gatekeeper is powered
by your laptop and all network connections are redirected through the
Yoggie. If you are connected via wire, you then connect the cat-5
connector to the Gatekeeper. If you are connected via wireless, network
data is redirected through the Gatekeeper and its security before it
enters your system. You can disable the Yoggie if you have the
additional password. For inline connections you simply place the
Gatekeeper inline between your network and your computer. It supports
cat-5 in and out.
The Yoggie supports up to five IP addresses so
it is an excellent product for home offices and telecommuters. Simply
insert the Gatekeeper between your cable or DSL modem and your hub or
switch and your home network is protected. The Yoggie is a proxy, so
isolation is complete. You can set the level of security you want using
the web pages that the Gatekeeper generates.
The Yoggie also has
a system approach intended for use by larger organizations that want to
protect road warriors’ laptops. The management server acts as a gateway
and configuration manager for Yoggie Gatekeepers in the field. The
Yoggie administrator can set security policies/configurations for the
remote Gatekeepers, and users will not be able to change the policies
or operate without the Yoggie plugged into their laptops. The
management server collects logs from the field and generates
appropriate security reports.
We tested the Yoggie Gatekeeper Pro
in multiple scenarios. First, we placed it on a laptop in our lab and
tested it using both inline and redirection configuration. Using our
vulnerability assessment tool (NetClarity) and our penetration tool
(Core Impact) we were unable to compromise the Gatekeeper or the
computer behind it. The other Gatekeeper functions worked exactly as
promised and we came away from our testing satisfied that the product
delivers as advertised.
Following the lab testing, I took the
product on the road with me on my laptop. I had a couple of
configuration challenges initially, but once it settled in, I saw no
impact on my normal computing. The couple of times I needed to contact
support I got good answers. I use an add-in WiFi card to access my
organization’s wireless provider and it worked smoothly in each airport
where I tested it.
The Yoggie allocates an IP address to the
laptop and picks up the external address in the normal manner (dynamic
host configuration protocol or static). It performs full NATing,
keeping the laptop isolated.
Yoggie was founded by Shlomo
Touboul, the founder of Finjan Software. The Gatekeeper is a solid
product and is available through a network of dealers and distributors.
I am told that it shortly will be in computer stores as well.
One
small caveat is in order here, however. If you are considering the
Gatekeeper in a corporate environment, I recommend that you buy a few
of them along with the management server and run a controlled pilot
before deploying organization-wide. It is a simple product to set up,
deploy and manage. However, it is an entirely new concept for help
desks, users and administrators. It is a good practice to get the
product up and running, learn its quirks (I didn’t find many, and none
of any particular importance), and get your help desk comfortable with
supporting it.
— Peter Stephenson
Product: Yoggie Gatekeeper Pro
Company: Yoggie Security Systems, Ltd.
Availability: Now
Price: $220
What it does: Full-featured miniature hardware security gateway for laptop computers.
What we liked: We
really liked the portability of and the ease of set up and management.
The wide range of security functionality is impressive.