Over the years we’ve seen increased efforts at boosting the security of our smartphones where malware attacks can be prevented, such as more in-depth app reviews, automated screening processes, and more. However it looks like Qualcomm wants to lend a hand in the fight against malware as they have announced Qualcomm Snapdragon Smart Protect.
Basically this is a malware protection feature that will be baked into its chipsets software platform, and it will begin starting with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, which has been pegged to make its way into devices come 2016. To ensure that the feature is up to the task of protecting smartphone owners, the company has worked with the likes of Avast, AVG, and Lookout.
According to Qualcomm, “Snapdragon Smart Protect is also the first application to utilize Qualcomm Zeroth technology, augmenting conventional anti-malware solutions by supporting on device real-time malware detection, classification and cause analysis using an advanced cognitive computing behavioral engine.”
Ubergizmo co-founder Hubert Nguyen talked to Qualcomm representatives last week, and agrees that behavioral analysis is necessary as a second layer, or last line of defense, against new malware.
Typical anti-virus software relies on detecting virus signatures by analyzing their code. Unfortunately, there are many ways for viruses to morph to foil that detection. Hubert Nguyen said that something as simple as adding a “nop” (no-operation) instruction or a jmp (code jump) to the next instruction may thwart some signature recognition techniques.
While signature detection remains efficient for known and older attack vectors, they simply don’t work on new ones.
Qualcomm’s Smart Protect analyzes what the apps are doing and tries to see if it makes sense. For example, if you app is sending SMS without your knowledge, this may be a problem (SMS is often used to steal a few cents here and there to millions of users). It then reports a suspicious activity to the user, who can take action by removing the app. It could also report activity to 3rd party anti-virus systems.
Qualcomm will make this available for free to 3rd party vendors and OEMs. Will it be effective? We suppose we will have to wait until 2016 to find out, but at the end of the day, it will probably help.
That said, you (the user) remain the weak link: if you purposely open up suspicious emails and downloaded attachments, and go to third-party app stores that aren’t verified to download your apps, all the best protection in the world can only help to a point.