Got a free Chromebook - true/false no need for anti-virus?

[FactChecker]

For those of us who worked with computers before the Internet, this sounds extremely naïve!

Where security is the top priority, complete disconnection from the internet is the usual policy. And yes, it really is a pain.

Any method of exchanging information with other computers, including floppy disks and thumb drives, poses an infection risk.

The permission to put new software/data on a computer system can be restricted to system administrators. They can follow procedures that include scanning the incoming software/data on an unclassified computer before it is moved onto the classified system.

PS. Although this level of security can be achieved, it is still not perfect and it is not practical except in the most extreme cases.

 

[anorlunda]

I thought it was a prerequisite of computer security that bad guys have no physical access to the machines.

Of course that leaves the risk of insider actions, but even those can be restricted. One facility I saw put a dab of concrete in all USB ports to assure they would never be used.

That is why upstream supply chain risks are so worrisome. If a bad guy has access to your hardware before you take delivery of it, how would you know?

 

[FactChecker]

Apparently, you can also run Linux apps on Chromebook, including LibreOffice and GIMP.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3328838/best-linux-apps-for-chromebooks.html

 

[Dr Transport]

We didn't use concrete, we had security seals and if one got broken (and we had to check them every day as part of the security audit at the end of the day) everyone who walked into that room during the day got called back to be interrogated and it wasn't pretty, clearances and employment status were in jeopardy.

And leave it to our best and brightest aerospace engineers and rocket scientists to put super old games on a stand alone computer at a major research lab. That reminds me of the time I hacked together a script to mess with one of the guys. He typed on a keyboard like it was an IBM manual, I mean really hard, and he broke keyboards pretty regularly. So I wrote a script to open up a command prompt when he logged in and when he started typing the command prompt came to the from of the screen and yelled "OW, *** stop hitting me, that hurts". The good old days, I'd get fired for that now.

 

[MikeeMiracle]

Once you get to super secretive / national security stuff you can't just disconnect a computer from a network / internet and do nothing else, you have to secure the entire area. Theer are methods involving monitoring the power usage of the affected PC, picking up magnetic signals from the wires in the CPU, making the screen flicker in a way which is not noticable by humans but can be picked up by security camera's etc. A mobile phone near the computer can pick up these signals.

In a truly secure environment no mobiles or electronics devices with any sensors should get anywhere near the secure PC. In my last work place we had to leave our phones with security on arrival and collect them at the end of the day.