Smartphones have long been established in business, and the security that protects the sensitive data they handle has evolved just as dramatically as the devices over the past 15 years.
The world of smartphones started slowly as cell phone manufacturers began adding features to their mobile phones that took advantage of the newly available data networks: email and collaboration tools first, then other dedicated applications and, finally, web browsing. Convergence came from both sides. For example, Palm took their wildly popular personal organizer and added a cell phone to it. When the Palm Treo 650 came out in 2004, it was clear that you didn't have to be Motorola to make a "smart" cellphone.
Management and security, however, were not top-of-mind.
Mobile Security's Infancy
It wasn't until 2006 that Symbian, Nokia's smartphone operating system, added features such as requiring applications to be signed — combating widespread problems with viruses arriving over Bluetooth connections. That was the year Nokia shipped the Symbian-based N95, the first smartphone that combined outstanding camera, music and GPS navigation together with traditional business applications.
Meanwhile, security management of smartphones lagged. Microsoft broke through the management barriers with their under-the-radar Mobile Device Management (MDM) tool, Exchange Active Sync (EAS). EAS v12 was released in 2008, which gave every IT manager running Microsoft Exchange (the overwhelming choice of enterprises) the ability to easily manage smartphone security at no additional charge. In 2010, Android v2.2 jumped on the MDM bandwagon by building in support for Microsoft EAS. Android was beginning to shift from a hobbyist experiment to something mainstream enterprises could use.
Two years later, in 2012, Samsung saw the potential of smartphones in the enterprise — and the need for security. They started the Samsung Knox program to identify enterprise security requirements and push them into the Android platform and Samsung hardware. Samsung worked within the security and Android communities to drive security improvements such as Security Enhanced Linux into mainline Android.
Samsung's Knox investment in Android security continued through the years, with additional features such as biometric identification standards, real-time kernel protection and separate work/home profiles.
Because Samsung is committed to securing the Android ecosystem, many of these have made their way back into the standard Android operating system — and into other vendors' smartphone hardware. To close the loop, Samsung Knox 3.0, released in 2018, harmonized many of the security features between Samsung hardware and software and the core Android operating system.
Read this infographic to learn more about how mobile security has evolved over the years.
2. The first
smartphones
start to appear
Palm added email, basic
web access and a phone to
a personal organizerwith
the Treo 650. There was
almost no security.
2004
3. 2006
Nokia’s N95 made
camera, music and
GPS a priority.
Name: Software 2.0
Publisher: ABD Software Inc.
From: http//: ABDsoftware2.com
CERTIFICATE
Symbian and
Nokia take viruses
seriously
Symbian 9 required most
apps to be signed to
protect against viruses.
4. 2007
Early iPhones used ASLR, code signing,
sandboxing and hardware encryption,
setting new expectations forphones.
Hash
Function
Code Hashed Code Signed Code
SignatureEncrypt Hash Using
a Private Key
Attached
to Code
Encrypted Hash &
Time Stamp
Apple reinvents the phone with
open software, closed hardware
5. Read on formore Mobile Security historical facts
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7. 2010
Android v2.2 makes
EAS management easy
with built-in support
Security policy controls like remote
wipe became part of mainstream
Android, shifting it toward
enterprise environments.
REMOTE
WIPE
8. 2012
Samsung Knox identifies
key enterprise security
requirements
Samsung began investing in
securityto make Android
enterprise-safe, pushing
features like SE Linux into
the mainstream.
9. 2013
TrustZone, a secure
mode supported by
ARM processors,
protects information
against compromise.
Normal
Apps
Nonsecure World
Client TEE API
Rich OS
Trusted
Apps
Secure World
Secure TEE API
Trusted OS
Monitor
ARM Security Extensions
TrustZone protects
encryption keys and
identity information
10. 2014 2017
READ
ONLY
RKP
SECURE WORLD NORMALWORLD
KERNEL
Control instructions and page table
update functions are replaced by
traps to the Secure World
Page tables are mapped
read-only so they cannot be
directly modified by the kernel
Galaxy Note4
(2014)
Galaxy Note Edge
(2014)
Galaxy Note5
(2015)
Galaxy S7
(2016)
Galaxy Note8
(2017)
Galaxy S8
(2017)
Samsung
Knox innovations
continue to add
security to Android
Knox brought critical features to
Android, like biometrics, real-time
kernel protection and separate
work/home profiles.
11. 2018
Samsung Knox continues
to blaze the trail in mobile
security, as olderfeatures
are reimagined by Google
forAndroid.
Knox 3.0 joins Google’s
Android Enterprise with
Samsung security