Tag: samsung mobile security

Samsung introduces new mobile technology suite for enterprises

| February 26, 2013

Samsung New Mobile TechnologySamsung sets sight on enterprises with new mobile technology

Samsung became the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer last year with the launch of the Galaxy S III. The company was able to dethrone Apple after years of competition and is now beginning to set its sights on BlackBerry, the company that has dominated the enterprise market for several years. BlackBerry’s smartphones are favored among business professionals because of the features they offer, but Samsung believes that it can offer enterprises much better tools that can synergize the personal and professional profiles in a single mobile device.

Samsung unveils Knox

Samsung has revealed an new enterprise initiative called Knox. The initiative is designed to allow users to make use of their personal and professional profiles on a single mobile devices, rather than keeping track of these profiles on various devices. This is similar to BlackBerry Balance, which is one of the major features of the recently launched BlackBerry 10 operating system. The BlackBerry Balance separates personal items, such as mobile games and entertainment applications, and corporate applications. This feature allows corporate applications to remain secure, free from the data collection methods that are common in apps like mobile games.

Knox will help keep corporate data secure

Samsung’s Knox is still in its early stages of development, but Samsung believes that the service will be well received in the world of enterprise. The system will help keep corporate applications secure by separating them from the rest of a smartphone’s operating system. These applications will still function as they are meant to, but the mobile device itself will have limited access to the information being used with these applications. Applications that are more personal will not be able to interact with corporate applications on any level.

Knox may be an adequate alternative to BlackBerry

Samsung believes that Knox will help provide more peace of mind for enterprises making use of mobile devices. Knox is expected to help address some mobile security issues that exist with the Android operating system. These issues have lead many enterprises to favor BlackBerry in the past, but that may change when Knox is fully actualized in the market at some point in the coming years.

Mobile security flaw discovered in Samsung devices

| December 23, 2012

Mobile Security Problems SamsungDevelopers find mobile security flaw with Samsung Android devices

Developers associated with XDA Developers, a mobile software development community with over 4 million users worldwide, have found a serious mobile security flaw in recent Samsung mobile devices. One developer, going by the username “Alephzain,” discovered that many Samsung devices that use Google’s Android operating system. The security flaw allowed Alephzain, as well as other developers, to access all of the physical memory contain within a Samsung device. Developers were able to access this memory because of an exploit that provided then with root level permissions.

Flaw could make information vulnerable to theft

Mobile security has been gaining serious attention lately, largely due to the types of information that are stored on mobile devices. A typical smart phone or tablet contains a user’s personal information, such as name, address, and birth date, all of which can be used in identity theft. Mobile devices are quickly becoming mobile payment platforms as well, which means they can store a user’s financial information, such as credit card and bank account numbers. This information is highly valuable to a hacker.

Galaxy S III among most vulnerable devices

According to XDA Developers, the Samsung devices that are most vulnerable are the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy S II, The Galaxy Note II, and Meizu MX. Devices that make use of the Exynos processor are also likely to have some degree of mobile security vulnerabilities. Several developers associated with the community have informed Samsung of the serious security flaw, with one going so far as to hack several mobile devices in order to prove that the flaw exists. There are no known Android malware applications that exploit this particular vulnerability.

Financial information could be at risk

Samsung’s Galaxy S III is one of the most popular smart phones in the world currently, having become a major competitor against the iPhone 5 shortly after its launch. Part of the reason the device is so popular is because of its use of NFC technology for data sharing and mobile commerce. When used to make payments, the device stores a consumer’s financial information. The glaring mobile security flaw that seems to have slipped past Samsung  may have put the financial information of millions of Galaxy S III owners at risk.