Chromebook Security Extension

Chromebook Security Extension is a Chrome browser extension that provides a “Web Security Gateway within the browser.” The extension controls user internet access based on policy that is defined on and synchronized from the Barracuda Web Security Gateway appliance. Chromebook Security Extension also logs all internet activity locally and periodically uploads this information to the Web Security Gateway where it can be used to generate reports.

Chromebooks are helping developing populations go digital, but they are also becoming near-ubiquitous learning aids in many schools. Security and compliance, particularly with CIPA in the United States, are critical issues. In particular, when students take school-issued Chromebooks off-campus and use them to connect to the internet through unsecured home or public Wi-Fi networks, they are vulnerable to prohibited content, as well as to malware intrusions that could later spread to the school network. This makes it important to use a solution that enforces web access policies on Chromebooks even when they are not connected to the network.

Chromebooks use a special version of the Chrome browser as their operating system. As a result, you cannot install traditional applications on them. Instead, added programs must be either in the form of browser extensions or web applications. Chromebooks are tightly integrated with the Google Apps suite, which gives you a wide range of control mechanisms and security features, but they do not offer URL content filtering or internet activity reporting.

Barracuda Web Security Gateway with Chromebook Security Extension lets you augment the broad feature set provided by the affordable combination of Google Apps and Chromebook devices with comprehensive web security that goes wherever your Chromebooks go. It’s a solution that can ease or eliminate the operational and administrative overhead associated with managing Chromebooks. Barracuda Chromebook Security Extension was specifically designed to deal with these unique configurations in the simplest way possible. For educational institutions, it also supports CIPA compliance by protecting students from prohibited content on the web.