NSA: Samsung Knox Devices Safe for Classified Info

Several Galaxy devices (and the Boeing Black phone) received NSA approval to carry classified information.

A number of Samsung mobile devices have been cleared by the National Security Agency for use by U.S. government officials.

The Galaxy S5, S4, Note 4, and Note 3 smartphones, plus the Note 10.1 tablet, among others, received NSA approval to carry classified information, provided they are running Samsung's secure Knox enterprise suite.

Boeing's self-destructing Black smartphone (not to be confused with the Blackphone) also made the list.

"The inclusion of Samsung mobile devices on the ... list proves the unmatched security of Samsung Galaxy Devices supported by the Knox platform," CEO JK Shin said in a statement. "At Samsung, we continue to address today's increasingly complex security challenges, and are committed to delivering the most reliable mobile platform satisfying the needs of professionals in all industries."

Samsung Knox, introduced last year, provides Samsung devices with a corporate controlled "container," much like BlackBerry Balance. The Department of Defense approved Knox in May 2013, and Samsung struck a deal with mobile security firm Lookout last September to bolster the security of Android devices running Knox.

By December, however, researchers found a "critical vulnerability" in Knox, which they said could enable "easy interception of data communications." The following month, Samsung said the researchers "did not identify a flaw or bug in Samsung Knox or Android, [but] a classic Man in the Middle (MitM) attack, which is possible at any point on the network to see unencrypted application data."

In May, Samsung released its Galaxy S5 smartphone with Knox 2.0; the update includes an improved user experience and new tools for SMBs.

The next month, five Knox-installed Galaxy phones and tablets received approval from the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency.

Such approvals are increasingly necessary in a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environment. Gone are the days when people had a BlackBerry for work and an iPhone or other smartphone for personal use. People don't want to carry two gadgets around, so IT departments have had to add support for more popular devices. In industries that deal with classified or sensitive information - from banking to the military - super-secure services like Knox are intended to avoid data leaks and prying eyes.

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NSA: Samsung Knox Devices Safe for Classified Info