What is Samsung Knox Security? Samsung’s mobile security explained

Samsung smartphones, tablets, and wearables have a trick up their sleeves in the form of Samsung Knox Security, a Samsung-exclusive multi-layer security system that helps keep your data private. 

The problem is that Samsung doesn’t do the best job at highlighting just how impressive the tech is and why it’s important to consumers — but that’s where we come in.

What is Samsung Knox Security?

Samsung Knox is the security protection included in many Samsung smartphones, tablets, and even smartwatches, with the aim of protecting your data from exploits and hackers. 

This is done in several ways and depends in part on the Samsung device you’re using as newer devices can use a combination of software and hardware protection. The idea is that the layers of protection help isolate your data, therefore making it harder for hackers to access. 

The basic idea is that it’ll protect your most sensitive data such as passwords, biometric data, and payment information, though businesses can also utilise Knox Security to protect the data stored on workers’ phones. 

The biggest and most important feature of Knox Security is Knox Vault. 

Knox Vault is one of the newer levels of security added to the overall Knox Security Suite, using an isolated operating system and isolated hardware to further separate your information from malicious actors. 

This essentially means that a separate OS is running alongside Android on your smartphone, acting as a layer of separation between apps and your data. Hackers might be able to access the faux OS, but they shouldn’t be able to penetrate it and get access to your most private data.  

What makes Samsung Knox Security unique?

What makes Samsung Knox Security so unique is the inclusion of Samsung’s dedicated Knox Vault Processor, built into the SoC of more recent flagship Samsungs like the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S22 alongside tablets like the Galaxy Tab S8 series.

It means that even if a vulnerability is found within the Android OS, hackers still won’t be able to access data in your vault storage as they’d need to use Samsung’s applets to gain access. 

It doesn’t just protect from remote hacking attempts either, with the ability to detect physical attacks in the form of laser light or electromagnetic fault injection, and will immediately destroy all data on the phone.

In terms of consumer-focused mobile security, you don’t get much more in-depth than this.  

Which Samsung phones offer Knox Security?

The good news is that Samsung has been using Knox in its smartphones, tablets, and even smartwatches since 2015. 

In fact, according to the Samsung Knox website, there are 428 Samsung devices that boast some kind of Knox protection, ranging from the Galaxy J7 back in 2015 to the latest flagships.

However, the version of Knox Security and the features you get access to is dependent on the smartphone, with more advanced security features like Knox Vault being exclusive to recent flagship models like the Samsung Galaxy S21 and S22. 

If you want to drill down into the data, Samsung has a handy list of all compatible devices, along with the specific Knox functionality on offer.