Use of such a laptop in the UK would appear to contravene the Computer Misuse Act (on at least a count of unauthorised computer access), if you have a Samsung with this software I suggest you hire a good lawyer and shop around for investment opportunities for your payout.

What are the chances that Samsung have also breached government secrets acts with this in several countries!?

Hopefully the supervisor he talked to was just blowing smoke and trying to get him to go away. If this is legitimately approved by Samsung, somebody needs their head examined.

Or failing that, they should loan me their laptop after they've done some banking and online shopping on it.