Media release
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, March 26, 2014 – Samsung Electronics South Africa, announced it has reached a new milestone for its enterprise customers by becoming the first in the mobile industry to achieve a Common Criteria Certification on its GALAXY devices embedded with security platform KNOX.
Common Criteria is the international “gold standard” for secure and trusted systems, specifically to ensure that they satisfy the predefined set of security requirements designed for enterprises. Samsung KNOX confers enhanced security upon mobile devices, helping enterprises protect mobile access to high-value information assets.
Common Criteria (CC) certification assures that certified devices are independently evaluated and verified to meet fundamental security requirements specified in the Protection Profile. The current CC certification targets the new Mobile Device Fundamentals Protection Profile (MDFPP) of National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) published in October 2013, which addresses the security requirements of mobile devices for use in enterprise. The components certified in CC form a strong cryptographic foundation on which more advanced KNOX security features are implemented. This certification validates that enterprises can safely provide their workers access to networks and high-value information assets using CC-certified GALAXY devices with KNOX embedded.
The focus of KNOX for Samsung has been bringing enhanced security to Android mobile devices. “This endeavour is about more than just security, but is also centred on the pursuit of driving the entire mobile ecosystem, providing the enterprise customer with a better, high-assurance solution than they have ever had access to,” said Paulo Ferreira, Enterprise Mobility Head at Samsung Electronics, South Africa.
With the successful attainment of the Common Criteria certification, Samsung has gone a step further in reinforcing its commitment to enterprise and government structures – to deliver a protected network security which is evaluated against the industry’s highest standards, further enhancing business partners’ confidence in the brand.
As officially documented by Gossamer Labs of Catonsville, MD: “In my twenty-five years of doing security evaluations, I have rarely seen a company that could complete an entire Common Criteria evaluation, from the very first meeting to conclusion, in under four months”. Director of Gossamer Security Solutions, Jim Arnold said: “At Gossamer we pride ourselves on our responsiveness and Samsung’s speed and agility as a company certainly challenged us.”
Certified Platform Availability
The first certification was performed on select Samsung handsets and tablets, and will be available across a range of Samsung devices starting in Q2/2014.
About KNOX
KNOX is an Android-based platform that addresses the many security shortcomings of Android. The KNOX platform retains full compatibility with Android and the Google Play ecosystem while offering fundamental security and management enhancements to serve the needs of both regulated and general Enterprise environments.
KNOX provides the hardware-level protection of both the Android operating system and applications running on it. The most comprehensive mobile device management (MDM) capabilities combined with its unique Application Container technology support both Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) and Corporate-Liable models without compromising corporate security or employee privacy. KNOX complies with key US Government and Department of Defense initiatives and other standards for mobile device security, enabling its deployment in government and other highly regulated enterprise environments. The KNOX platform received the approval, called STIG, from US Defense Information Systems Agency to use in US DoD networks in May 2013.
Samsung KNOX brings together a suite of best-in-class mobile security capabilities. KNOX boasts Secure Boot facilities, NSA Security Enhancement (SE) for Android (built on SE Linux), ARM TrustZone based Integrity Management Architecture (TIMA), on-device data encryption, DoD-compliant Mobile Device Management (MDM) and secure Application Containers to isolate untrusted apps and protect white-listed ones.
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in technology, opening new possibilities for people everywhere. Through relentless innovation and discovery, we are transforming the worlds of TVs, smartphones, tablets, PCs, cameras, home appliances, printers, LTE systems, medical devices, semiconductors and LED solutions. We employ 286,000 people across 80 countries with annual sales of US$216.7 billion. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com.
