ChromeBook

I don’t work on Chromebooks very often. There isn’t much that can go wrong with them. Recently, I was given a Chromebook to work on that had been hacked. It wasn’t really hacked, and from what I’ve read, in terms of security, a Chromebook is about as secure as you can get. I don’t know how true that is, but it seems likely.
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In this case, the person had a pop-up in the Chrome browser saying he had been hacked, by Russians no less. Very specific. Hackers don’t usually tell you anything about themselves. I recognized the pop-up, as I’ve seen that sort of thing on Windows machines before. The computer isn’t compromised, it’s just being annoying.

In this case, I moved the cursor to one of the 3 pop-up windows and an X and a tool icon appeared I clicked on the tool icon and selected Block this sender. All three pop-up windows immediately disappeared and did not return. Some Internet suggestions were to reset the browser, or even reset the Chromebook. Both seemed a tad extreme.

This isn’t a ‘cure’, since another annoying site can do the same thing. With malware and hijacks, it’s a constant battle. They will always be out there phishing, and you will always try to not get hooked. The thing to remember is to NOT CALL THE NUMBER and give them your time and money. Breathe, and remember that the Russians didn’t hack you.

Next thing. Chromebooks are kind of cool. While I am used to Windows, and Macs are also great, Chromebooks are likely all that many of us need. The Chromebook simplifies what most of us are doing, which is going on the internet. Google also supplies many free apps, like word processing and spreadsheets, and it’s FREE.

If you have an old laptop you haven’t given me yet, you might want to turn it into a Chromebook and try it out. You can download the software to a USB drive and run it on anything, or even install it to the old laptop, which I recommend. Again, it’s free. I’ve written about it before, but this time, I’ll let Linus guide you through the process, from why it’s worth doing to the actual doing of it. Watch the Youtube video HERE.