Tech giant Samsung Electronics’ mobile security solution KNOX has received the highest score among security solutions for mobile operating systems in a series of tests, surpassing rivals including Apple.

Samsung received the highest “strong,” rating in market research firm Gartner’s annual report released last week. It assesses 12 mobile security solutions across more than 20 categories including encryption management, authentication methods, and OS updates.

Other solutions tested in the assessment report include those running on mobile operating systems Android, iOS, Windows, and BlackBerry OS.

“Security professionals must make informed decisions about deploying management software or mobile security apps, or whether they can rely on the various devices’ security controls. This assessment focuses on the security requirements that apply to mobile devices and compares the most popular mobile device platforms with respect to these requirements,” Gartner noted in its report.

“In today’s mobile-first environment, data privacy and protection are the integral components of all mobile applications and services, and KNOX is a ready-made hardware-vaulted security platform on which many mobile applications can be built with strong security and privacy protections on Samsung smartphone hardware,” said Rhee In-jong, Samsung’s chief of enterprise research and development.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)