Samsung Knox Gets US Military Approval

Samsung Knox has been cleared for use by the US Department of Defense, becoming the latest mobile device management platform to get the US government’s seal of approval.

The use of Samsung Galaxy S4 handsets running Android 4.4 and protected by Knox is now permitted on DoD networks as part of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)’s latest guidelines.

The DoD’s container allows for access to Defense Enterprise Email (DEE), synced calendar and contacts in a ‘for official used only’ environment. Users can also access the DoD’s mobility application suite, an automated store of approved apps, with 19 core applications currently available and more set to be added at the end of May.

Samsung Knox approval

Other features enabled on Android include secure Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, native browser, contacts and device encryption.

The Pentagon has traditionally favoured BlackBerry smartphones but in recent years has looked to deploy a multi-OS strategy. DISA cleared iOS 6 for use on military networks in May last year, while it also approved the use of BlackBerry 10 devices managed by BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) a few months later.

Earlier this week, the UK government said it would allow all public sector workers to use some Samsung smartphones running Android version 4.3 and Knox.

Knox’s main selling point is that it can protect devices from the kernel to application level and forms part of an ongoing push into the enterprise mobility market, which the Korean manufacturer believes can offset any saturation in the consumer smartphone market in developed countries.

Enterprise push

Since the launch of the software in October 2012, Samsung claims to have sold more than 25 million Knox-enabled devices and that the platform has already attracted more than one million users, with more than 210,000 activated each month.

It announced a major update to Knox at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona earlier this year and rolled out the new version to Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphones last week.

New security features include TrustZone-protected certificate management, a Knox key store, real time monitoring for administrators, two-factor authentication for fingerprint and password log-ins. Knox also supports dual-billing for personal and business use and is compatible with third party containers.

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