36% of the world’s population has access to a smartphone. This figure represents approximately 2 billion users, and ownership is flourishing. Consider, each user may have at least one account they log into, such as email. Add three, five or 10 accounts, and you start to realize the issue.
Companies have done a great job protecting initial access to your phone, such as Facial and fingerprint scanning. However, what takes place once you are logged in? The modern smartphone platform is more than just a phone. For some, it is their bread and butter. Without their device, they would lose business contacts, bank accounts, and current news. Few users do a satisfactory job of backing up data on their smartphones.
Hackers work overtime to gain access to your phone and home computer. With each new software update, devious computer science engineers immediately work to circumvent the system. Blue-chip computer scientists see the future of smartphone security as hardware isolation. The operating system, apps, and alternative components are merely a pass-through to where true credentials are locked away, the hardware.
Future of Smartphone Security
The issue of protecting your smartphone is immense. Biometric scanning is doing an outstanding job of individual access. Millions of smartphone users rely exclusively on password managers and other apps to secure their most crucial information. Homeowners use their phone to manage home lighting, appliances, and more importantly home security.
Think-tanks around the world are scrutinizing these issues from a global perspective. Big players in technology are constantly looking for platforms that secure your phone, bank accounts and also remember to turn off the lights. Home integrations with smartphone technology are a vast global market; it is also very fragmented. AI (artificial intelligence) continues to be adopted into the devices we use every day and voice control is predicted to bring all these technologies under one umbrella.
Identifying threats has become more difficult. Malicious software is being cloaked in useful apps, and users are completely unaware or incapable of dealing with these risks. It has become essential to every smartphone user to go above and beyond traditional methods to protect their data.
ReCRED
One such company at the cutting edge of smartphone security is ReCRED (Real-world Identities to Privacy-preserving and Attribute-based CREDentials). The platform seeks to eliminate the need for passwords or pins to log into each of the services we use. The unique approach, developed by a global team of scientists, wants to link all accounts to a specific biometric identity.
Password overload affects us all. Advancing the usability of smartphones is the principal goal of firms such as ReCRED. The system is based on individual smartphones and their users. The architecture uses each cell-phone as a proxy. Meaning, your phone is an intermediary to all the accounts you use. ReCRED and comparable companies seek to be the lone point of login for your digital world. With this model, the user grants explicit rights to manage the security of your phone. ReCRED attempts to limit access across the platform such as email. Verifying your email would no longer be allowed because too much of the user’s identity would be disclosed.
Most experts regard the hardware isolation model as the only correct approach to withstand the increasing threat of attacks and data vulnerabilities. Separating data and computational processes within hardware containers is the only way to make your smartphone impervious to attack.