Knox Guard 26.01 release notes

New

Enroll in a tenant domain

Starting with the 26.01 release, you can now enroll your tenant in a domain. Domains organize users into different categories based on their use case and allow Knox Guard to automatically apply specialized features based on your organization’s needs and security requirements.

This release introduces four domains: Device Financing, Device Insurance, Enterprise, and Other.

For existing customers, depending on your previous tenant type, your account’s super admin may be prompted to select a domain the first time they sign in to the Knox Guard console after the release:

• Normal tenants can select between the Device Financing, Device Insurance, Enterprise, or Other domains.
• Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) tenants are automatically migrated to the Device Financing domain. This transition is non-configurable.
• Antifraud tenants aren’t impacted by this change, and won’t need to select a domain. You can continue to use Knox Guard as usual.

Once you’ve selected a domain, you can continue to use Knox Guard as usual. Alternatively, click Finish later on the Domain selection screen to defer this choice to a later date. You can return to this screen by clicking Finish domain selection on the banner that appears at the top of the Knox Guard console.

If you’re new to Knox Guard, you’ll be prompted to select a domain during the registration process. Depending on the domain you selected, some features may automatically be enabled for your tenant.

To learn more about the available domains and their features, see Tenant domains.

Protect your financed devices with Hardened Security mode

This release introduces Hardened Security mode, Knox Guard’s new enhanced security feature, available exclusively to device financing customers.

When you add a device with hardened security architecture¹ to a financing domain, a unique set of security mechanisms and policies are automatically applied to deter hacking.

Hardened Security mode is mandatory for device financing customers, and can’t be reversed once applied.

If you’re an existing customer, when you enroll into the Device Financing domain, you can select whether you’d like to apply Hardened Security mode to eligible devices that are already in your console. After enrolling into a financing domain, Hardened Security mode will automatically apply to all new eligible device uploads.

For more information on the key capabilities and requirements of this new feature¹, see Hardened Security mode.

Switch your sign-in method to Samsung account for Business

If you currently use a personal Samsung account to sign in to the Knox Admin Portal and access Knox Guard, you now have the option to switch to a new sign-in method using a Samsung account for Business in the 26.01 release.

As opposed to a personal Samsung account, a Samsung account for Business is an identity and access management (IAM) platform that’s designed to be at the core of IT operations and acts as a secure gateway to Samsung’s ecosystem of enterprise solutions. It enables you to manage accounts, enforce security and compliance, and optimize your business operations. Moreover, with a Samsung account for Business you can keep work data separate from all other data in a personal Samsung account.

If you’re a super admin, you’re shown a banner on the console, from where you can initiate the transition to Samsung account for Business for all admins in your tenant. For more information about the process, see Switch your sign-in method to Samsung account for Business.

Encourage payments with function restrictions

With this release, if you have a Knox Guard Advanced license and are enrolled in the Device Financing domain, you can now apply function restrictions to your devices to encourage users to fulfill outstanding payments.

On the Devices page, use the new Apply function restrictions policy to block camera access or restrict a device’s performance. You can only apply function restrictions to devices with hardened security architecture¹. For more information, see Apply or remove function restrictions.