Is it safe to enable Virtualization on my laptop?

Question

I'm learning SAS and the first thing I need to do is enable Virtualization because I download Oracle VM Virtualbox.

Is there any safety risks by doing so? I go to coffee shops a lot to mooch their wifi.

Answer 1

Actually, a virtual machine can be used to make a machine safer. For example, if a rogue website managed to install malware on your laptop while using a browser running in a VM, once the VM shuts down, the malware is gone.

N.B. VM is not a panacea: it is possible to exploit it, as was shown in March, 2017, but it is still less likely to be compromised than browsing directly from the OS.

Answer 2

Safety risks associated with a VM on your machine? No, not unless you allow it to access your host system, which is disabled by default. You'd have to break it pretty intentionally for it to compromise your machine. You have a much higher safety concern from using unsecured wifi than anything.