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What is verified access on a Chromebook?

A great feature for mass-enrolled enterprise Chromebooks.
By
March 24, 2022

Chromebooks have become a popular choice of computers for a lot of folks. One of their main selling points has been the ease of mass deployment and management, making them great for educational and corporate institutions. One feature that helps this aspect is verified access. But what is verified access on Chromebooks?

Read more: What is Chrome OS and who is it for?

QUICK ANSWER 

Verified access on a Chromebook is an API from Google to validate the identity and integrity of a Chromebook. It ensures a secure connection between the Chromebook and the enterprise or school network, keeping sensitive data safe.

What is verified access on a Chromebook?

Samsung Chromebook 4 logo close up
Palash Volvoikar / Android Authority

Verified access is an API from Google that helps validate the identity of a Chromebook, and the user logging in to it, on a hardware level. This is mainly an enterprise feature, and it helps a network service, like a VPN, a sensitive server, or an enterprise entity like a Wi-Fi access point or certificate authority ensure that the Chromebook accessing it hasn’t been tampered with.

Verified access ensures that the Chromebook enrolled on the enterprise network is unmodified and complies with the enterprise policy. This is crucial to enterprise customers as they often have a lot of sensitive data that requires tamper-proofing measures. Usually, these measures are on the client-side, which means the Chromebook user is responsible for ensuring the Chromebook is tamper-proof. But that’s far from fully secure. That’s where verified access comes in.

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Verified access relies on the TPM chip present in Chromebooks. It leverages it to help the enterprise network confirm the identity and integrity of a Chromebook on a hardware level. The enterprise administrators will need to install a Chrome extension on the Chromebooks. This extension uses the API to get cryptographic assurance, i.e., secure hardware-level assurance, about the Chromebook being safe to be let onto the enterprise or school network.

The administrators have to enable, enforce, or disable verified access, and the users themselves cannot alter this setting on their Chromebooks. So if you have any queries about this feature on your Chromebook, you will need to contact your systems administrator.


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