John Sims, Enterprise Services chief at BlackBerry, downplayed Samsung’s security application, Knox, saying a Blackberry device is more secure.
Sims wrote on Inside Blackberry Business Blog, “Most recently, researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev announced that they discovered a major vulnerability that allows a hacker to easily intercept data of a Knox-enabled Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. Ultimately, Samsung provided a statement that the vulnerability was with Android, but this shows the challenge that Samsung has with continually developing Knox to survive in a hostile environment.
“Coupled with previous issues that have come to light regarding their security, this critical vulnerability calls into question – is Knox ready for the enterprise and government customers who cannot risk the security of their mobile data?
“With Samsung still battle testing its enterprise platform and fixing security bugs, industries that require the most stringent security needs can trust that there’s nothing more secure than a BlackBerry device managed by a BlackBerry Enterprise Server – period. And that’s why we are the only enterprise mobility management vendor and handset maker that has received the Department of Defense “Authority to Operate” certification.
“Blue Hill Research reminds us that Samsung announced Knox at Mobile World Congress in February 2013, and nearly a year later customers are still waiting to go into full production. Frankly, this is because security is hard and it is not possible to condense thousands of person years of learning into 12 short months.
“Furthermore, Knox only works on select Samsung devices. For those highly “regulated” customers – those that require the strictest security levels – bring your own device (BYOD) is not an option. However, there are a significant number of enterprises where BYOD is the way forward. Knox has no flexibility for the BYOD trend.”
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