Unsupported ChromeOS Risks

ChromeOS prides itself as being one of the most secure operating systems that can be found on consumer devices. Google and the ChromeOS developers built ChromeOS to be resilient against harmful malware and prevent malicious users from extracting sensitive information from a ChromeOS device. Unfortunately, despite the ChromeOS developer's best efforts, newer threats are being developed each day to attempt to undermine the security of ChromeOS. 

All ChromeOS Devices will recieve between 5 and 10 years of updates from the time the device is initially released. During this period, your device will recieve regular security patches to prevent newly discovered attacks from impacting your device.  In addition to security updates, most ChromeOS updates also include stability fixes and sometimes introduce newer features to your device. 

When a device becomes older, it will eventually stop getting updates. Although it is still possible to continue to use a device that has stopped receiving updates from the ChromeOS team, the continued use of these devices does carry some security risks. These risks will get more severe over time as newer attacks are discovered.

Malware Infections

Using an unsupported operating system can allow attackers to use novel attack vectors to install malicious software on your ChromeOS device. This can include things such as ransomware, viruses or other destructive applications intended to delete your data. 

Sensitive Data Extraction

Using an unsupported operating system could potentially allow attackers to find exploits to allow them to access sensitive data on your device. This could be a local attack where the attacker has physical access to your device, or a remote attack.