Sony Reveals Xperia Smartphone Business & Security Enhancements

Sony has announced that it has finished introducing a range of optimizations and feature tweaks for its Xperia line of mobile devices. Sony claims to have made progress in four key areas to offer users unique business features, these are all related to security.

“The developments we’ve made in security can be categorised into four areas; System Security, Secure Storage, Network Security and Device Security.”

The improvements are quite extensive and go above and beyond what most Android smartphone vendors offer in the way of business features. You need to have a compatible Xperia device to join the program and the compatible devices are the Xperia Z1, Z Ultra, Z, ZR, ZL and tablet. Users won’t need to pay anything to access the special software and services – all you need is to purchase one of the previously mentioned Xperia devices and you’re ready to go.

System security
Using the Linux based Android OS, we’ve taken advantage of the existing level of security which is provided through the Android Application Sandbox, ensuring the isolation of app data and code from other apps. Apps cannot interact with each other and have limited access to the OS, resulting in sensitive information being protected.

Secure Storage
With protection from passwords, PIN codes and screen unlock patterns, data is kept safe. To enhance the security in this area our engineers have also made sure that we have encryption capabilities, making the data unreadable to anyone but the intended user. The Xperia™ Z1 offers 256-bit AES encryption for all the data in the internal memory and also on the external SD card. This guarantees strong protection, and if the device we’re lost or stolen it could be remotely locked or wiped.

Network Security
We know that businesses expect to be able to use corporate networks wherever they are whilst also keeping data protected. So we’ve ensured secure connections through a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) 2.0 and 3.0, and Transport Layer Security (TLS v.10, v1.1 andv1.2). There is also support for StartTLS with IMAP/POP3 accounts. Whether using mobile networks, VPN or Wi-Fi, confidential information is kept safe.

Device Security
Again the screen lock combined with a passcode (a PIN or an alphanumeric password) is the first security barrier in preventing unauthorised users from gaining access to the device. In addition we’ve made these devices compatible with leading MDM providers, meaning that policies can be enforced over-the-air via an MDM solution or by using Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync®.

Image courtesy of Sony