An unlikely partnership has formed between two rivals, Samsung and BlackBerry, aiming to boost security offerings in the mobile space.

Samsung and BlackBerry have announced on Thursday, Nov. 13, that they entered a new security-focused partnership that will bring BlackBerry's much-touted encryption system to businesses that use Samsung's Galaxy devices.

Under this new partnership, Samsung will start integrating BlackBerry's BES12 end-to-end encryption service into its own KNOX security suite early next year. The KNOX software adds an extra layer of security to Android devices, but the suite has received criticism over its weak encryption. Samsung licenses its KNOX to enterprise customers nonetheless, and under the new deal Samsung signed with BlackBerry, KNOX will ramp up its encryption and be more secure.

"We share the goal to provide enterprises with the most secure mobility solutions through this partnership with BlackBerry," said Injong Rhee, Senior Vice President of KNOX Business Group, Samsung Electronics. "Samsung KNOX is focused on delivering secure mobility solutions to enterprises and, combined with BES12, we will offer more options for customers that need enhanced levels of security on Android devices."

"BlackBerry has developed a very close partnership with Samsung and we're committed to deepening the interaction between our engineering and product development teams for the long-term," added John Sims, BlackBerry's President of Global Enterprise Services. "It is a natural progression in our path to providing our customers with more alternatives to meet their evolving mobile needs. Samsung KNOX offers a number of hardware and software security features and our partnership allows us to tightly integrate these capabilities with BES12."

This new partnership between the two companies comes as a surprise, especially since not too long ago BlackBerry CEO John Chen bashed Google's decision to bake Samsung's KNOX security suite into Android L, as it was referred to at the time. More specifically, back in early July Chen said that BlackBerry applauded Google and Samsung's initiative, but that it was not enough for enterprises for which security is paramount. Chen highlighted that BlackBerry has invested in security and productivity for three decades and has proved its worth repeatedly, instead of just making promises and coming up with initiatives than sound good.

The new partnership between Samsung and BlackBerry may seem unlikely, but it actually stands to benefit both companies. While Samsung will be able to increase security for its enterprise users, BlackBerry will expand the reach of its security software to new customers who use other devices.

As previously mentioned, Samsung will start offering the software early next year, but no pricing details are available at this point. We'll keep you up to date as soon as we learn more.