Depending on how old you are, it might not seem all that long ago that Chrome OS and Chromebooks were laughed at for being too limited, as well as perhaps being ahead of their time. Fast forward to 2016 however, and not only has Chrome OS become a successful platform for Google, but the Chromebooks and other Chrome OS devices have become great sellers and back in January of this year, they even outsold Apple’s MacBook. Where the growth of Chrome OS has been most surprising however, is in the Enterprise Sector, where these low-cost devices are being used to connect teams together for conference calls, as well as keeping everything on-site, instead asking employees to log in to a central server remotely. Now, Google is adding Verified Access to all Chrome OS devices in order to make them much more secure for enterprise use.
Verified Access is something IT employees will no doubt be instantly familiar with, but for others out there, it will need some sort of explanation. In a nutshell, it’s a way for a gateway to get hardware-backed cryptographic proof that a device really is what it says it is. This makes it much easier for support works to make sure who is logging in with what as well as make sure that their secure VPN or WiFi networks are only being accessed by devices that are 100% approved to do so. In Chrome OS, Google will be using the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to make sure that this all works and have already been working with Duo Security and Ruckus Wireless to prove the concept.
This isn’t the sort of news that will excite the majority of Chrome OS users, but it should be noted that further adoption in the Enterprise is good for all of us. After all, as Enterprise users start to become more demanding, and Chromebooks with Verified Access are accepted by more and more firms, the bar for Chromebook hardware will be raised for all of us. It’s also worth noting that this news once again goes to show how serious Google takes the security of Chrome OS as a whole.