Why the NSA loves Google's Chromebook

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/09/why-the-nsa-loves-googles-chromebook/

By Sean Gallagher
Ars Technica
Sept 11 2013

As Andrew Cunningham reported today, Intel and Google are announcing an 
upcoming onslaught of new Google Chromebooks based on Intel's Haswell 
architecture processors. The idea of a cloud-tethered notebook that can 
keep its owner connected over Wi-Fi and broadband all day long -- in some 
cases for less than the price of a shiny new Apple iPhone -- is going to 
be awfully appealing to many.

And without a doubt, no one will be happier than the National Security 
Agency (NSA) and law enforcement. While Google's cloud computing has 
provided a platform for the company to grab a big chunk of the low-cost 
notebook market and upend Microsoft's Windows applecart, the recent NSA 
leaks by Edward Snowden have put the cloud under... a cloud.

There are some places where this isn't going to necessarily have much 
impact on Google's market ascension. Google has steamrollered the 
education market with Google Apps, and the low-cost Chromebook is a 
natural fit for the classroom. My middle-school-aged daughter now is 
required to have a Google account for school so she can be linked into her 
teacher's shared documents; the Chromebook's connection to Google 
credentials means that she can share a device with classmates and the 
school doesn't need IT support to provision accounts on them.

The Chromebook is also an interesting development platform in many ways -- 
the recent functional additions to the Google Apps platform have made it 
more developer friendly, and collaborative applications live much more 
happily in a cloud-connected environment than they do in synchronized 
caches on devices scattered from here to hell and back.

[...]



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