Comment 8: A Brief Security Brief for 30 March 2022

The ABA Rules of Professional Conduct, Model Rule 1.1 Comment 8 requires, “To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer shall keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.” To that end, we have developed this regular series to develop the competence and skills necessary to responsibly choose and use the best technologies for your educational and professional lives. If you have any questions, concerns, or topics you would like to see discussed, please reach out to e.koltonski@csuohio.edu.

 

If you use the Chrome browser on any of your personal devices, this blog post is for you. This week there has been a lot of reporting that there are newly discovered exploits on the Chrome browser that will make your device less secure. Whether you use Chrome on Windows or macOS [Yes, Macs can be hacked.], you need to update your Chrome app as soon as possible to help protect your system from potential malicious attacks.

This article from Forbes is likely a bit more technical than you may need, but it gives a good overview of what is happening and, more importantly, explains how to go about updating your Chrome browser. Updating Chrome on your phone is handled differently, but phones tend to put everything for updating in the same place. IT departments at your workplace will take care of updating the computers that they manage.

 

Terminology Check:

exploit: A technique to breach the security of a network or information system in violation of security policy (cisa.gov).

Think of an exploit like having a fence around your yard with a big hole in it. Or finding a loophole in the tax law and using it.

 

Updating your devices, operating system, and apps is something you should strive to do on a regular basis, even if you aren’t weird and do it daily like me.