Final cost difference between Chromebooks and Windows?

<blockquote><em><a href="#21494">In reply to </a><a href="../../../../users/a113e21">a113e21</a><a href="#21494">:</a></em></blockquote>
<p>When it comes to ChromeBooks there is actually potentially a bigger security issue then with a on-site managed Windows computer, and having an actual IT department, that a lot of people tend to forget.&nbsp;</p>
<p>How do you managed the ChromeBooks .. you do it though the Cloud only.. through&nbsp; Google Apps Admin Console for instance.</p>
<p>This lets you not only remote Wipe the ChromeBooks, and potentially wipe the data stored in the Cloud as well&nbsp;</p>
<p>You can not influence the security of how this is managed at all, you will have to trust Google and for the most part I’m sure you can regarding this, but what is&nbsp;actually much more important is you need to trust the person you put in charge of managing all the Chromebooks knows what they are doing.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If we assume no gmail/Google account has ever&nbsp;been hacked, then that is not a problem. But gmail accounts gets hacked all the time ..and specially if you fire the IT department and give this job to some one already burdened with other responsibilities, how secure are they keys to the kingdom then?</p>
<p>Securitiy is always an issue, but in the tradiitional setup you most of the time can limit access to people that has physicall access only, or at least very specific way to get access remotely that requires more inside knowledge of the company. &nbsp;Moving the managment to few accounts, that lets you manage it all from anywhere in the world, sure is convenient, but unfortunately it is also convenient for an attacker. If it is then a account system that is well known and people still get unauthorised access to all the time you might have a problem.</p>
<p>One good Social engineered attack, and all students data and all Chromebooks are locked. Sure you might be able to get the data back, but&nbsp;to do damage it does not even matter if you as an attacker manage to delete user data or not… &nbsp;because of course Google would help you out. But how about locking all Chromebooks for all students 1 or 2 days before a huge national test , SAT what ever?</p>
<p>Lets say you as an attacker managed to remote wipe and lock 10.000 students Chromebooks for 1 – 2 days when they need it the most to study for something important. &nbsp; How much work would it actually take to do that &nbsp;if you get access to the administrator account that you then can access online anywhere in the world.&nbsp;</p>
<p>I’m not saying this will happen, what I’m saying is that it is important to thing about the risk of placing all you eggs in one basket, and also who are you handing over this responsibility to? &nbsp;Is it Bob or Sue in accounting , is it Lisa or Ron the special class teachers?&nbsp;</p>
<p>Then of course what will the damage cost the school if this happens.. 10.000 or why not 100.000 students are locked out in best case scenariot for a few hours.. worste case 1 – 2 weeks because people scrable and try and figure out what happend and they try and get help from IT but they then realize the fired IT 2 years ago. &nbsp;Cost does not have to be monitary only, it can also be in reputation.</p>
<p>My point is, if you go for any system remotely managed that seems very convienent ..be critical, and make damn sure you know who you put in change of it . It goes for Chromebooks but other systems as well&nbsp;</p>