Have you ever sat in a café and watched those laptop people, tapping away at their keyboards? Even though I would much rather spend my nights and weekends chilling out at a café, than working at one. There is nevertheless a certain something enticing about that freelance kind of life.

But as with anything in life, there are pitfalls to working in cafes, I believe. Addiction to coffee, overly-easy access to fresh sandwiches and no less importantly, concerns for your laptop’s security.

Well, we may not be able to help with the lox or latte overloads, but when it comes to laptop security, there’s something that can be done.

As reported on Israel 21c an Israeli start-up has developed an innovative new credit-card sized security device that can provide Pentagon-level security to laptops when users access the Internet outside their office, like in cafe hotspots, airports, and hotel rooms.

The Yoggie Gatekeeper, developed by Yoggie Security Systems, is a miniature computer that hooks up to portable computers to allow mobile and remote workers to use the net with the same security enjoyed by their counterparts in the corporate network.

The GateKeeper, which goes on sale in the US this month, is designed specifically to protect the Windows XP platform. It is a one-stop security package that includes 13 different security programs, including firewall, a VPN client, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing, four proxy systems, intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, and a security engine

“This gives your laptop the same level of security that large corporations and organizations like the Pentagon, the Federal Reserve Bank, and Disney now experience in their offices but in a pocket sized form that you can travel with easily,” says Shlomo Touboul, Yoggie’s founder and CEO.

“Today corporations have excellent security, but once you leave the office you leave behind all the great security and your laptop is vulnerable to attack. We developed a tiny computer dedicated to protecting its host computer. This is a completely new concept.”

Touboul is a veteran entrepreneur who knows a gap in the market when he sees one. Back in 1985 he founded Shani Computers, which he later sold to Intel in 1994 for $20 million. By today’s standards this doesn’t sound much, but back then it generated a lot of excitement because it was the first time a US company had come to Israel to purchase a start-up. In 2000, Touboul went on to found and manage information security company Finjan. It was during this period that he became aware of the security problem with laptop computers.

To read the full article on Israel 21C, click here.