Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is close to signing a deal to sell its popular line of Galaxy devices to theU.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, sources familiar with the situation said on Friday.
The deal would be a boost for Samsung, which is increasingly seeking to cater to the needs of government agencies,a niche long dominated by Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd .
The FBI, with more than 35,000 employees, at present uses mainly BlackBerry devices. It is unclear whether the agency plans to replace all BlackBerry equipment with Galaxy models or whether it will use hardware from both companies.
A spokeswoman for the FBI declined to comment on the matter, saying that the selection of its new smart phones is part of an active acquisition process and any current discussions are proprietary to the government.
The imminent deal was initially reported by the Wall Street Journal late on Thursday. The WSJ also said Samsung is close to signing a smaller order for its devices with the U.S. Navy, citing people familiar with the matter.
Representatives of BlackBerry and Samsung declined to comment. BlackBerry emphasized, however, that it regards its operating system as the best in the market in terms of security features.
"The security of mobile devices is more important now than it has ever been before," BlackBerry's chief legal officer, Steve Zipperstein,said in an interview. "It is fair to ask why in this context anyone would consider moving from the gold standard in security, which is the BlackBerry platform."
In May, the U.S. Pentagon cleared Samsung's Android mobile devices and a new line of BlackBerry devices powered by theBB10 operating system for useon DefenseDepartment networks.
Samsung has been pushing hard to convincegovernment agenciesand corporate clients that its Galaxy devices, powered by Google Inc's Android operating system, can meet their stringent security needs.
The SouthKorean company hopes that the Pentagon clearance and the imminentdeal with the FBI will help boost sales to security-conscious clients including banks and law firms.
Some analysts remain skeptical about whether Android can meet all security requirements of such clients, and note that theFBI itself has highlightedsome vulnerabilities of theplatform.
"The Android operating system hasn't been secured properly," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with Enderle Group, notingthat Samsung has layered technology on top of theoperating system in an attempt to make its Galaxy devicessafer.
"If you are goingto tackle security, you kind of have to do it throughout theentire platform. It's not that Samsung doesn't want to - it is that they don't own theoperating system so they cannot," said Enderle. "If you're goingto sell into government, you have to be able to provide a securesolution and Android isn't it yet."
Enderle and other analysts also say that since Android security is not end-to-end managed by a single entity, this can create more vulnerabilitiesand prove more costly.
The FBI's move to explore other platforms is also garnering some concernin politicalcircles in theUnited States.
U.S. Representative Kenny Marchant of Texas said in a letter to theFBI that he believes theagency ought to use mobiledevices that do not rely on disparate technologies that would create additionalsecurity vulnerabilities.
"I understand that the FBI may be consideringa new solutionthat is a patchwork of technologiesstitched together," Marchant said inthe letter, which was obtained by Reuters. "I am concerned that this approach may prove to be more costly thanother alternatives."
No comments:
Post a Comment