Qualcomm puts a kill switch in the Snapdragon 810 chipset, SafeSwitch is now official
After the "kill switch" became the law in certain states, more and more manufacturers and software developers are beginning to employ this security-related feature in the devices and mobile platforms they develop. The newest from Google's camp, Android 5.0 Lollipop, comes with a kill switch; it's turned on by default in Apple's newest, iOS 8, as well. Windows Phone 8.1 has it, too.
It now seems that Qualcomm, the leader on the chipset market, has also hopped on the kill switch bandwagon. The Snapdragon 810 silicon comes with Qualcomm's own kill switch security functionality on board. Dubbed SafeSwitch, Qualcomm's solution is a hardware-based one and it's yet another option ahead of all those smartphone manufacturers that put said chip in their devices. SafeSwitch will allow you to "set a password remotely, erase and recover data, and locate or lock a lost or stolen device".
We don't know what future Qualcomm chipsets will come with SafeSwitch, but chances are that the chipset maker might make this security feature a standard for its products.
But what makes it any different from the other types of kill switches that are already out there? Well, as Qualcomm puts it, SafeSwitch is described to being almost impossible to "hack", not only because it's hardware-based, but due to its early activation during the boot process, long before the rest of the firmware on your phone starts.
source: Qualcomm via SlashGear
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