“Samsung ships its Knox software on the company’s higher-end Android-based Galaxy smartphones, phablets and tablets, aimed at enabling sales to enterprise and government clients who have sensitive security needs, in a bid to take on Apple’s extensive lead in enterprise sales.,” Daniel Eran Dilger reports for AppleInsider. “”
“Two days ago, Samsung announced that the U.S. government had approved a series of new devices ‘for use with classified government networks and data. All devices and capabilities incorporate security features powered by Samsung KNOX,’ and were added to the ‘Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) Program Component List,'” Dilger reports. “The company’s chief executive JK Shin stated in a press release that ‘the inclusion of Samsung mobile devices on the CSfC list proves the unmatched security of Samsung Galaxy devices supported by the KNOX platform.'”
Dilger reports, “Earlier today, however, a software researcher published findings showing that Samsung’s Knox app stores the user’s password “hint” PIN in plain text on the device… Samsung’s Knox security layer for Android generates weak encryption keys, stores passwords locally and gives users login hints in a fatal ‘security by obscurity’ design ‘compromising the security of the product completely,'” a researcher has detailed.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Somebody has be on the take.
U.S Government Intelligence. The oxymoron that keeps on giving.
Why would the U.S. government choose an insecure mobile operating system on devices from a South Korean convicted infringer of a U.S. company’s patented intellectual property over said U.S. company’s vastly more secure products?
Could it be due to the fact that Google has already inserted some U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) code into Android while Apple does not accept code from any government agencies for any of their operating systems or any other products?
Nah, couldn’t be. That doesn’t make any sense at all. I must be craaazzzy!
I long for a simpler time. A saner time. A time when rewarding foreign companies that have been convicted of repeatedly and blatantly stealing intellectual property from U.S. companies with contracts financed with U.S. taxpayer money would be utterly unthinkable, not rubber-stamped.
Along with U.S. taxpayers who value their hard-earned money, any U.S. representative worth his or her salt should be livid right about now. That only one or two might be (if we’re even that lucky), is a pitiful testament to the absolutely clueless, generally moronic, and largely worthless dreck that fouls the houses of the U.S. Congress today.
Will some U.S. Congressperson or Senator finally luck out and stumble into a clue, then stand up and ask WTF is really going on here?
If not, a plague on both your houses, you unpatriotic fools.
U.S. citizens, contact your U.S. congressperson here.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, former web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Steve Krischer” for the heads up.]
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