Cybercrime is on the rise, and the statistics confirm it. According to SlashNET, between 2021 and 2022, malicious URLs experienced a staggering 61% increase. Yes, you read that right! That means 255 million phishing attacks were recorded worldwide in 2022 alone.
But that’s not all: Statista also revealed that, during the first half of 2022, there were 236 billion ransomware attacks, or 14.96 attacks per second. Ransomware is malicious software or “malware” used to block access to a person’s or company’s files or systems.
In July 2022, a hacker managed to infiltrate a popular short messaging platform and steal personal information from 5.4 million accounts, such as emails, phone numbers, and other data, which fell into the wrong hands.
Last year’s cyberattacks cost $8.4 trillion, and as if that weren’t a shocking figure, experts at Cybersecurity Ventures predict that by 2026 they will reach a staggering $20 trillion, an increase of almost 120%.
You are protected?
For nearly a decade, Samsung has been dedicated to providing consumers with the world’s most reliable and secure mobile devices. In this sense, the South Korean company has developed Knox Vault, an evolution in hardware-based security that has been incorporated into Galaxy smartphones over the years.
Knox Vault extends the protection provided by TrustZone, a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) promoted by Samsung to safeguard sensitive data such as passwords, biometrics, and cryptographic keys. While TrustZone runs a different operating system alongside Android on the main application processor, Knox Vault operates completely independently of the main processor running the Android operating system.
As an essential component of the Knox security platform, Knox Vault is a secure, isolated, tamper-resistant subsystem with its own processor, memory, and a dedicated, non-volatile secure storage interface. Knox Vault features include:
- Store sensitive data such as hardware-backed Android Keystore keys, Samsung Attestation Key (SAK), biometrics, and blockchain credentials.
- Deploy security-essential code, which is responsible for authenticating users, maintaining rigorous protection and controlling access to keys through carefully managed authentication. In addition, it ensures incremental waiting times between failures, thus guaranteeing an optimal level of security.
Knox Vault is built into Samsung devices starting with the Galaxy S21 and consists of components assessed against Common Criteria based on BSI PP0084 requirements at EAL4+ or higher. These components are tested by an independent laboratory against a wide range of hardware attacks and through a review of their software and firmware.
extensive protection
In addition to being resistant to software attacks, Knox Vault is also designed to be tamper-proof to thwart hardware attacks, which require an attacker to have physical possession of a device to extract secrets. Knox Vault is resistant to hardware attacks such as:
- Physical probing to reveal data.
- Physical manipulation of circuitry to disable security mechanisms.
- Forced information leak.
- Hardware side channel attacks, such as differential power analysis to reveal data.
- Fault injection to bypass security mechanisms.
“Samsung is constantly working to provide secure technology solutions to its users, which is why our defense-grade mobile security platform protects confidential and sensitive data against a wide variety of attacks. With Knox Vault, users will enjoy comprehensive protection that ensures the privacy and security of their data at all times. It is our commitment to keep our clients’ information protected, in an increasingly challenging digital world”, commented Carlos Hoquee, Regional Solutions Manager.
