Qualcomm today announced Snapdragon Smart Protect, a tool that will be capable of detecting, analysing and offering protection against zero-day malware threats in real time. The first chip to feature support for Smart Protect will be Qualcomm’s next high-end chipset, the Snapdragon 820. 

Smart Protect will also be the first product from Qualcomm to utilise the Zeroth platform and take advantage of its advanced cognitive computing behavioural engine. The company is also offerings APIs to OEMs so that they can analyse their devices and get real-time information of any malware in them, if detected.

Snapdragon Smart Protect complements existing signature-based anti-malware solutions by analyzing and identifying new threats prior to new signature updates. OEMs and mobile anti-malware application providers can also use Snapdragon Smart Protect API’s to perform valuable causal analysis, offering users and the mobile industry real-time information of identified threats.

Additionally, Qualcomm is working closely with OEMs and app developers like Avast and AVG to make Smart Protect capabilities available in their respective apps. The company says that its Smart Protect feature will allow OEMs to further improve their security offerings and give consumers more peace of mind regarding the security and privacy of their personal data stored on their smartphones.

Qualcomm says Smart Protect will make its debut with the Snapdragon 820 chipset in 2016.