Zyxel Communications demonstrated at Sans 2005 Annual Conference their ZyWALL P1 Personal Internet Security Appliance. They are claiming it is the first palm-sized firewall and VPN device for mobile computers, I won’t argue that.

The P1 measures only 5 x 3 inches and weighs a mere 4.5 ounces. It’s equipped with a 10/100Mbps Ethernet WAN and LAN port and can be powered strictly off of your USB port. One of the main features is to protect users against Internet attacks; a powerful Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall will protect you while you surf. It also includes an ICSA-certified IPSec VPN client for secure connections.

If you travel often and use public networks, you could be compromising your data to unknown attackers. The ZyWALL P1 was designed to be small enough to protect mobile users wherever they go and easy to setup. The P1 is the first product to use Ethernet as the data conduit between itself and the PC while using the USB port as a power source. It will run on Windows, Macintosh or Linux-based computers and sell for $299.