Snapdragon processors address mobile security with smartphone kill switch | Hacker News Reader

Snapdragon processors address mobile security with smartphone kill switch

qualcomm.com

38 pointsfinid21 comments

I feel that if the absence of a kill switch is a deciding factor for you when choosing a smartphone then you shouldn't be using a smartphone in the first place.

Also, interestingly enough Blackberry isn't a part of the Group which aligns pretty well with their image.

http://www.cio.com/article/2370034/smartphones/blackberry-no...

What really scares is me is "combined with third party service provider support" part. That means it is not just you who has the capability to flip the switch.

Imagine someone breaking into service provider's database, acquiring all the keys. That couldn't surely happen, could it?

That, plus backdoor access by your favorite, 3-letter govt agency.

There needs to be another party in there to communicate with the phone regardless, right? I simply interpret that quote to mean you can use the "switch" with a 3rd party service like Android Device Manager / Cerberus, that Qualcomm is not operating directly.

Actually, looking at the video it appears they're partnering with https://www.lookout.com/ for this.

I saw the same sentence but I just laughed - I read that as "your crappy provider has to somehow enable this, which they're obviously not going to bother doing".

Depends if Sony is hosting them or not (this is only partially a joke)

Intel's been offering that for some of their processors for quite some time (vPro)... also third party provider, I believe they inject a rootkit into Windows upon bootup. But you can (supposedly) irreversibly disable it fortunately.

My question is will this work even without a SIM card. My father recent had his iPhone stolen and within 10 minutes I had gone into iCloud and turned on remote wipe. Unfortunately the thief was smart enough to remove the sim and make sure it never saw Internet while breaking into the phone enough to the point that he got an email the next day that google had blocked someone nearby trying to log into his gmail. Who know what else was gleaned from the phone itself.

It's difficult to force a remote reset when you no longer have physical control over the device. Baseband support on a separate battery might be one of the few ways to help increase the probability of protection.

Doesn't that effectively become a "Two Generals' Problem" sort of thing? I mean, I guess links are reliable enough, but at what point do you decide when link severance is long enough to wipe the phone? What occurs if iCloud is down for that long?

At which point the thief takes the phone into a basement of an office complex or something. Somewhere with no cell reception. Even wrapping the phone in (grounded) tinfoil would probably work.

Qualcomm is widely known to be cozy with certain clandestine agencies. I'm quite certain, nay, positive, that this kill switch can be abused by government agents and police forces. How long until this is used against dissenters? Against protesters in some Middle Eastern dictatorship?

Hell, how long until the NYPD rolls out a Stingray with kill-switch-tripping capability?

I'm betting not long.

The world needs an open baseband processor and accompanying OS/firmware.

If it is well known I suppose you can provide something to back that up?

From one of the leaked Snowden powerpoints, Qualcomm is listed as an 'NSA Strategic Partner':

http://i.imgur.com/V211k8o.jpg

The NSA defines these relationships as, "Unique key corporate partnerships to high-capacity international fiber-optic cables, switches and/or routers throughout the world"

It's worth noting that Qualcomm was founded 30 years ago specifically to provide communications equipment to the pentagon[1]. Also General Scowcroft, George HW Bush's Assistant for National Security Affairs, is a current board member.[2]

[1] - https://www.qualcomm.com/company/about/history

[2] - http://investor.qualcomm.com/directors.cfm

Featuring a OnePlus One in the (hilarious) video.

I hope I'm not accidentally running around with this 'feature'?

Also, I am wondering is this different from say, Apple iPhone Locator (apart from the fact that this is relevant to Android)? I think with the latest OS, unless you choose a weak password, your device pretty much could be made a brick if stolen?

I give it a month before trolls are disabling people's phones for fun.

A radio and network interface that comes up before the bootloader? Sounds like awesome fun!

Turning three-letter-agency requests into consumer 'features' since 2001.

So crackers use JavaScript to extract data from smartphones ?

mother of god

An interesting thought experiment is to consider how differently this would be perceived if they branded this as something like "remote disable" rather than using the politically charged term "kill switch."

I suspect a lot of the dissenters would disappear.

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