Samsung has extended its relationship with Absolute Software to embed remote tracking technology in its smartphone firmware. Absolute's technology will be incorporated under Samsung's Knox security initiative, itself part of SAFE - Samsung For Enterprise.
SAFE is a suite of tools intended to position Samsung's mobile devices better within corporate environments, hoping to allay the policy and security fears of IT managers. SAFE's target areas include mobile device management (MDM), integration with enterprise applications like Microsoft Exchange, VPN remote access, and Knox, the security framework. Knox provides a wide-ranging set of security features, including secure boot, single sign-on, encryption, device tracking, and data separation for work and personal apps. Knox will become standard issue on new Samsung smartphones, starting with the Galaxy S4.
SAFE and Knox take aim at enterprise smartphone markets, dominated historically by BlackBerry (which hopes to reclaim lost ground with its Balance technology and MDM features in BlackBerry Enterprise Server), but more recently by Apple. "As we expand our position in the enterprise market, our customers are demanding enterprise-level security solutions," says Dr Injong Rhee, senior VP of the Technology Strategy Group, at Samsung Electronics.
With the Advantage deal, Samsung will embed the firm's CompuTrace persistence technology into its mobile chipsets, allowing devices to be tracked and monitored remotely, and to ensure that remote wipes are carried out in the event of theft. CompuTrace is designed to resist tampering and removal, and is popular as a service for tracking laptops and PCs - Samsung already supports CompuTrace in some laptops.
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