During his time as a student at RVCC, Peter Brumlik has tried to raise awareness towards the issue of browser security and has also tried to convince the college to switch to Firefox as their primary browser. I interviewed him about why he feels these changes are needed. My interview has been edited for greater clarity.
Jacob Rodzen: Why do you believe Edge is an insecure browser?
Peter Brumlik: Edge is based on Chrome and Chrome is suspect. Edge is owned by Microsoft and they want to get your data for ads. Meanwhile, Firefox is an open-source foundation, its whole job is to make a good secure browser and uBlock Origin and Decentraleyes help make that browser yet stronger, you can’t use those on Edge or Chrome.
Jacob Rodzen: Why exactly do you believe that using an insecure browser leaves a school vulnerable?
Peter Brumlik: There’s data collected that anyone could easily obtain when an insecure browser is being used. You can just buy it if it’s on Google or Microsoft products. It’s illegal to get that same data from Firefox because it could only be obtained through hacking.
Jacob Rodzen: What do you believe are the potential consequences of RVCC using an insecure browser?
Peter Brumlik: I think that we will have a lot of losses, and some people may not be able to afford the college that
might have otherwise would have if they weren’t scammed. It’s also possible that we may get hacked ourselves from one of their emails getting co-opted.
Jacob Rodzen: What made you so passionate about the issue of browser security?
Peter Brumlik: I got doxed after I explained my mother’s politics online and then I realised that to not get doxxed I’d have to be more secure. I was using Google at the time, so the person was just able to buy the data, they said that. It did get deleted but the internet is forever you cannot undo that.
Fact check: Despite Brumlik’s statements, uBlock Origin and Decentraleyes are available on Edge and Chrome, in addition to Firefox.
