Samsung Knox Devices Gain NSA Approval

Samsung’s Knox mobile security-enabled Galaxy S4 and S5 smartphones and its Note 3, Note 4 and Note 10.1 phablets are among a list of 10 of the vendor’s products that have gained approval from the U.S. National Security Agency under the Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) program.

The CsFC sanction serves as a supplement to the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) certification of commercial technology for use by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The NSA’s sanction doesn’t necessarily grant Samsung a competitive advantage over its mobile rivals in government contract bidding but does land it a place among approved equipment that has met or exceeded the agency’s security measurements for classified work.

What the listing may do, however, is attach to Samsung a level of credibility for its Knox-equipped devices to position the Korean device maker as an alternative to government approved stalwart BlackBerry (BBRY) in circumstances where security takes a prominent role in pubic sector buying decisions.

“The inclusion of Samsung mobile devices on the CSfC list proves the unmatched security of Samsung Galaxy devices supported by the Knox platform,” said JK Shin, Samsung Electronics IT and mobile business president and chief executive.

Earlier this year, Samsung mobile devices officially were included on the DISA/DoD approved product list for sensitive but unclassified work. The CSfC list for high security solutions supplements the DISA listing. Samsung said it is the only manufacturer with mobile devices on both lists.

Samsung’s Knox mobile security platform allows users a virtual container to separate work-associated data and applications from personal information. Currently, some 87 million devices are Knox-equipped but only 1.8 million actively use the platform, the Wall Street Journal reported. That number is rising, Samsung said, but the vendor has yet to provide a refreshed figure.

The Knox platform will be baked into the next version of Android, which doubtless will help allay security concerns about the mobile OS among government agencies and businesses.