Hacker News Reader

Comment by reustle | Hacker News Reader

Depending on how old your kids are, are they really going to be using it for anything that is at risk?

Edit: I'm not defending Dell in any way, but if they're watching youtube and browsing facebook, they'll probably be just fine.

View on HN

Until your main laptop is unavailable for some reason, so you borrow the kids one to do that urgent bank transfer or buy something online. Hopefully at that point you'll notice the amount of adware and crapware hogging the laptop and compromising it's performance that the kids have just got used to, and realise something is wrong before handing over your bank details to the Russian mob.

anything at risk such as "browsing on the internet" and "install software"?

I think the point is that an adult mostly risks losing money from their bank account (assuming they do their banking online), credit card (if they buy anything online) or the like.

Having a compromised machine on your network serves as entrypoint. The machine may also be part of a botnet which could expose you to questioning or worse by the authorities if the botnet is used in an attack.

neither is something you'd want, even if the machine itself is not used for anything critical.

I'm going to do my best and make sure that doesn't happen. The frustration lies in needing to remove the risks from the new computer.

They may use email. They may do that in an open wifi.

Email accounts are interesting for spammers. Reason enough to want working https.

Browsing facebook has risks of its own; it's a prime target for inter-kid hacking.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com