Theft Deterrence

Kill switch solutions have become necessary in a world where cell phone theft has been on a dramatic rise in recent years. Thieves have been able to profit by reselling stolen devices, simply doing a factory reset on the device, making it ready for a new customer. Qualcomm® SafeSwitch™ technology will enable users of SafeSwitch supported devices to remotely lock their mobile devices if they are lost or stolen, and then unlock them if they're found. One of the advantages of Qualcomm's kill switch solution is that SafeSwitch commands are verified by hardware, making potential attacks (both malicious locking of phones, as well as unlocking stolen phones) less feasible.

You can read more about what’s happening in the world of kill switch solutions, including Qualcomm's solution, in Ina Fried’s Re/code article.

Authentication

Qualcomm is also pleased to announce that it is involved in the biometrics space. It’s no secret that using passwords to authenticate users has become a challenge at best. Some would say that system is broken. So Qualcomm has been actively working on authentication alternatives, like biometrics, and new standards for biometrics, like those being developed by the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance. In fact, Qualcomm has been a board member of the FIDO Alliance for some time, bringing valuable mobile experience and perspective to new authentication solutions for a variety of industries.

The Big Picture

Our efforts at developing authentication alternatives and new security solutions like Qualcomm SafeSwitch help round out our multidimensional suite of mobile security offerings, which we now refer to as Qualcomm® Security Solutions. These solutions also include Qualcomm® Snapdragon StudioAccess™, enterprise and BYOD (bring your own device) solutions, and Qualcomm® SecureMSM™ as the secure foundation of them all. For more on the big picture of our security solutions, please check out our new infographic and website content at snapdragon.com/security.