Security isn’t just a Microsoft thing

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ON SECURITY By Susan Bradley Here at AskWoody, we concentrate on Microsoft patch days and security issues. But insecurity, privacy, and protection of
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Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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abbodi86

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“While makers of Chromebooks can state that they do not have the operating system targeted by ransomware, that’s not to say they are immune from all security risks. There should be a certain amount of paranoia on every platform.”

No matter how “secure” a Chromebook might be, there is one huge security risk you will always have – Google will be watching everything that you do and taking notes, so as to monetize the information that they gather.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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Perhaps the 6.5 year lifespan of a Chromebook is typical, but it is not a hard and fast rule. I purchased a Chromebook in April of 2021 that will get bug fixes until June 2029.

Correction: You do not need to reboot a Chromebook to be told that an update is available. Just like Windows, ChromeOS will popup a message that an update is available all by itself.

Clarify: Malwarebytes for a Chromebook is software for Android, not for ChromeOS. There is no anti-virus for ChromeOS because there are no viruses on ChromeOS. There are, however, malicious browser extensions.

Correction: The instructions for using OpenDNS on a Chromebook are two years old and no longer valid. No need for experimental Chrome flags any longer. And, it suggests changing DNS servers for one SSID which is not nearly as good as using the same DNS settings for all SSIDs. Secure DNS is changed at Settings -> Privacy and Security -> Security -> Use secure DNS. Not only is this system-wide, its also more secure.

Correction: As for “the Chromebook platform is geared for a cloud-first environment. Files are not intended to be saved on the device.”
This is not true. Files can easily be saved on a Chromebook. Just like Windows, there is pre-existing Downloads folder in the “My files” folder. Again like Windows, the user can easily save files either on the computer or in the cloud, though with Google Drive rather than OneDrive.

As for “I still remember a friend’s annoyances with the Chromebook her daughter had to use in school — saving files to an external USB flash drive was confusing.”
I don’t think this is fair. An external USB flash drive shows up in the ChromeOS equivalent of My Computer/This PC. Saving to it is no harder than saving to the D or E or F disk in Windows.

 

Get up to speed on router security at RouterSecurity.org and Defensive Computing at DefensiveComputingChecklist.com

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GreatAndPowerfulTech

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Next (and this is true for all platforms), disable saving passwords in the browser.

Why is saving passwords in Microsoft Edge a bad idea?

How to keep your passwords safe with Microsoft Edge

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1483 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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