Samsung GALAXY devices achieve highest-level of security certification

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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.

Paulo Ferreira, Enterprise Mobility Head at Samsung Electronics, South Africa, said:  “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.”

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.

Jim Arnold Director of Gossamer Security Solutions, Jim Arnold, said: “In my 25 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.

“At Gossamer we pride ourselves on our responsiveness and Samsung’s speed and agility as a company certainly challenged us.”