Can I Hack A School Issued Chromebook?
Published on
by Jim Mendenhall
Tags:
Chromebooks,
Chrome OS,
Chromebook FAQ
Sometimes people ask if it’s possible to “hack” or “bypass” the security on their school-issued Chrome OS devices. Sometimes they want to log in with their own personal Google account, and sometimes they want to bypass school or job enforced content filtering and app limitations. So, can you bypass the administrator restrictions or school enterprise enrollment on your Chromebook?
Summary
You can’t, and even if you could, you probably don’t want to. Hacking your school-issued Chromebook would most certainly lead to disciplinary or legal action from your school. Also, if you do figure out how to break the security on your school enterprise enrolled Chromebook, Google might pay you a lot of money for that information.
Recommended Alternative
Instead of trying to hack your school’s computer, you’re better off saving up a few bucks and buying yourself a laptop or tablet. Chromebooks are pretty cheap, and you can find some great deals, especially around Black Friday.
Why you should not try to bypass the security on school Chromebooks.
1. Google’s engineers are smarter than you.
Google has some of the world’s best security experts working for them, and they spend a lot of time on building a secure system that even the best hackers can’t break. Google offers up to $100,000 to security experts who can bypass their security! Unless you’re a super genius who’s still stuck in school, it is doubtful that you will figure out how to break Google’s security. If you are that genius, then there is a lot of money to be made by passing that information on to Google!
2. You’re more likely to break your Chromebook than you are likely to succeed.
If you’re searching around on the dark corners of the Internet for a way to hack a Chromebook, you’re likely to come across lots of scammers on forums who will claim they did it successfully. These forum posts usually require you to do things like open up your Chromebook, remove the battery, remove screws, and then do magical combinations of button presses “until it works.” These types of posts are not only scams, but they’re also likely to get you in trouble. When you eventually break your Chromebook, you’ll be forced to take it to your school computer dude, and he’s not going to be happy with you!
3. Even if you succeed, you’re likely to get in trouble.
Let’s imagine that you somehow figured out how to bypass enterprise enrollment on Chromebooks and successfully logged in with your personal Google account. The process involved would most likely be irreversible without the help of your school’s system administrator. School officials will probably be notified of these types of changes through the Google Admin Console and come looking for your computer. If not, they’ll figure it out when you return the device at the end of the year. There are some pretty strict laws on hacking (aka, unauthorized access to computer systems) in America, and you don’t want the school going after you in court.
So, save yourself a lot of trouble and just buy yourself a computer, or find an old one from a friend or family member. With your personal computer, you can do whatever you want (within reason) without the school’s restrictions. I’d recommend installing Ubuntu or some other Linux distribution and learning something useful along the way. Good luck!
