Your stolen smartphone will be useless; hardware kill switch is here

Qualcomm, the smartphone chipset manufacturer has officially announced SafeSwitch, a feature that can enable security in smartphones on a hardware level.

Kill switch solutions, a feature that is presently seen in Android and iOS smartphones on a software level, have become necessary in a world where cell phone theft has been on a dramatic rise in recent years. Thieves profit by reselling stolen devices, simply by doing a factory reset on the device, and making it ready for a new customer.

Qualcomm SafeSwitch technology will enable users of SafeSwitch supported devices, using which, they can remotely lock their mobile devices if they are lost or stolen. Users will also be able to unlock them if they're found.

One of the advantages of Qualcomm's kill switch solution is that SafeSwitch commands are verified by the hardware, making potential attacks (both malicious locking of phones, as well as unlocking stolen phones) less feasible.

It is a matter of time when we will see future smartphones equipped with the hardware feature from Qualcomm. Most new Snapdragon 810 chipsets and later will possibly see the hardware kill switch security implemented inside and ready out-of-the-box.

Google and Apple have been implementing the software-based kill switch into their respective operating systems till date. Microsoft will also do the same, but since the chipset will now feature the security at a hardware level, there might be no need for Microsoft to implement it into the new operating system.

Sadly, Apple might not be able to take advantage of the hardware kill switch since they don’t use Snapdragon chipsets in their products.