Major hotel chain ditches Windows for Chrome OS after ransomware attack
The power of Chrome compels… Nordic Choice Hotels.
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What you need to know
Windows PCs are popular, especially forransomware opportunists. That’s a big part of why Nordic Choice Hotels decided to abandon Windows.
Back in December 2021, the hotel chain suffered a ransomware attack that threatened to cripple its infrastructure. However, as the chain was already in the process of piloting its CloudReady migration from Windows to the Chrome OS ecosystem, it simply kicked the plan into high gear ahead of schedule and within 72 hours of the ransomware strike, 2,000 PCs spanning 212 hotels and five countries were converted (viaMynewsdesk).
Nordic Choice Hotels appears to be happy with its swap and shows no signs of considering a reversion to Windows, at least for the foreseeable future.
It’s no secretWindows is a ransomware magnet. According to VirusTotal, 95% of all ransomware attacks go after Microsoft’s operating system. And anyone who follows Windows news has likely seen the numerous reports of ransomware raining on the operating system’s parade wherever it can, including with regards to pedestrian functions such asWindows-based printing.
As such, it’s little surprise that a business unwilling to tolerate ransomware headaches would make the move to abandon the OS altogether and go with a safer alternative, assuming they don’t have a need for the specific functionalities Windows affords.
Microsoft and Google have a history of takingswipes at each other’s productsand highlighting their competition’s drawbacks. However, the debate gets a little thornierwhen it comes to ransomwaresince in that department, (virtually)all major roads lead to Redmond.
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Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He’s a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author ofCold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.
