Online security is one of the necessary evils of PC ownership – vitally important, but not something upon which anyone wants to expend too much time, money or thought.

And so the principal of the Yoggie Pico is a welcome one: you plug it into a USB socket and it provides complete, impenetrable protection against all viruses, trojans and spyware, without draining your PC’s processing power.

It works by creating a barrier between your computer and the outside world. Within the Pico’s sleek casing is a 520MHz Intel processor that handles all network traffic involving your PC. It also contains 15 security applications, including anti-spam, anti-phishing, antivirus and anti-spyware applications, as well as a firewall and intrusion detection.

If these defences were to be overwhelmed by a catastrophic attack, the Pico itself might be brought down but as soon as it was inactive, your PC’s link with the web would be disconnected, leaving it safe and sound.

It sounds almost too good to be true, but it does seem to deliver what it promises. It’s easy to install and the PC was noticeably faster once the existing patchwork of antivirus, anti-spyware and anti-spam programs had been uninstalled. It also performed well, rejecting sample viruses, and a complete scan of the PC after using the Yoggie for a few weeks didn’t reveal anything untoward.

There were one or two irritations. The device takes a minute or so to get warmed up, and until then it doesn’t allow web access. The faster start-up time achieved without the onboard security suite more than makes up for this short wait, but still, a delay is a delay to impatient web users.

The Yoggie’s main customers will probably be businesses, attracted by its promise of cast-iron security and the option to filter our certain types of website. It does not allow for a great deal of customisation, which may seem like a disadvantage, but it could actually be an advantage for many home users. The absence of long lists of customer settings is a welcome relief for people who just want to plug it in and forget about it, knowing that they’re secure.

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Yoggie Pico Personal: $179 (£88), currently including three years of updates, direct from the Yoggie online store