Newsletter
If you have been following the Samsung KNOX story – I mean who hasn’t been – then you are aware of the conflicting reports that have recently popped up on the internet. A couple weeks ago at Google I/O, we learned that the newest platform of Android ‘L’ would incorporate parts of Samsung’s KNOX security features directly into the operating system – shoring up what has been an ongoing criticism by its competitors. With Android devices trying to work their way into the government and military, security is one of their top priorities, and KNOX would only help Android’s case. Shortly after the exciting news of KNOX teaming to work with Google, many websites reported on a Forbes article that Samsung was abandoning development and support of KNOX, but never really made it clear what Samsung would do KNOX.
Some claimed it was because the market uptake of KNOX was just 2-percent and Samsung would no longer divert resources and talent to the project. Another claim was that Samsung would introduce it as a key feature on their new Tizen smartphones. Samsung decided that it would release an official statement to reiterate their commitment to KNOX and its ongoing development from Ombudsman Samsung Poland Olaf Krynickiego:
“Samsung is committed to the long term evolution of mobile security and the ongoing development of Samsung KNOX. While Samsung is contributing a part of KNOX technology for the benefit of the entire Android community and enterprise customers, Samsung KNOX remains the most secure Android platform from the hardware to the application level. Samsung will continue to work with our partners to enable KNOX for all of our valued customers. Our list of enterprise and government clients continues to grow rapidly, and is a testament to our commitment to providing highly-desirable, secure mobile devices across all industries. Furthermore, Samsung continues to offer differentiated and highly valuable mobile enterprise services such as KNOX EMM and KNOX Marketplace to provide customers with the most secure and scalable mobility management solution.”
Samsung’s KNOX was a complete security package that protected both the user and the company’s information by dividing the contents of KNOX into two areas – one private area for you to have complete access and a secure part for business that only IT people could control. What made KNOX so nice for the user, not only could they use one device for personal and business, but it also kept the IT people from accessing the personal side of the device. I am glad to see that Samsung is staying with KNOX – it seems as though management is using ‘knee-jerk’ decision making of late and cannot decide what direction to take the company…when that happens, you lose all credibility…not a good thing in the security business.