Summary
Snapdragon Guardian enables remote management even when devices are powered off or offline.
Built-in cellular, 4G/5G, and Wi‑Fi 7 boost enterprise manageability and ransomware defense.
Consumers get locate, lock, and wipe features built into Snapdragon devices for stronger theft protection.
The Snapdragon Summit is currently underway, and our editor-in-chief, Rich Woods, has been soaking up all of the new reveals and mingling with folk at the event. The last time I checked in with him, he was drooling over the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, so it’s safe to assume he’s having a blast.
Well, it turns out that the summit had a few more announcements up its sleeve before it finished. The company has announced its new security tools called Snapdragon Guardian, and while it doesn’t seem to be anything special for consumers at first, there is a single line in the press release that changes everything.
Snapdragon Guardian will help you find your lost hardware
Over in the Qualcomm newsroom, the company breaks down what its new security suite, Snapdragon Guardian, can do for its customers. At first, things start off with a business and enterprise focus, and while it’s not applicable for us consumers, it’s still a really interesting read just to see what technology can achieve these days. For instance, Qualcomm says:
Whereas typical management solutions stop working once PCs are powered off and disconnected from Wi-Fi, Snapdragon Guardian is backed by built-in cellular modems and 4G, 5G and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. This enables IT teams to securely manage devices in any location — even when those devices are offline, powered down or unbootable. And with up to 92% of successful ransomware attacks coming from unmanaged devices, that kind of protection and manageability makes all the difference.
That ransomware threat isn’t anything to scoff at; after AI models made creating malware even easier for bad actors, having an additional layer of security against it is well worth the effort that goes into setting it up.
So, what about us consumers? Well, right before the press release ends, there’s this one nice line:
For consumers: Through features like locate and lock and wipe, Snapdragon Guardian helps keep personal data safe while delivering an extra layer of theft protection.
That’s pretty huge; given how Snapdragon chips find themselves in laptops and mobile devices all the time, having Snapdragon Guardian offer device location alongside lock and wipe mechanisms is pretty big for built-in security instead of relying on the manufacturer or a third-party app to provide the same level of security. Definitely exciting stuff.