Apple's Face ID becomes more vulnerable: Mom's iPhone X unlocked using son's face

Apple's new Face ID feature is becoming more vulnerable, as a 10-year-old son has unlocked mom's iPhone X with his face

A man looks at the screen of his mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in Shanghai, China on July 30, 2017.
Reuters

Apple iPhone X, the most top-rated smartphone of the year is now the hottest pick among customers in the market. One of the major highlights of this device is its Face ID recognition feature with which users can unlock the phone using their face.

Apple too boasted that this peculiar feature will enhance the security of the device to a great extent. But now, the much-highlighted feature of iPhone X has become futile as a 10-year-old successfully unlocked his mom's smartphone using his own face.

Apple's Face ID feature fails

The incident happened in New York when the son of Attaullah Malik and Sana Sherwani accessed the device with his face. When the couple bought the phone, Sana Sherwani has told her son Ammar Malik that there is no way to access the phone unless and until she uses her face to unlock it.

But soon, the boy who shares startling similarities with his mother picked up the phone and successfully opened it with his face. This news clearly indicates that Apple Face ID feature can easily be thwarted by identical twins or similar-looking family members.

Apple's iPhone X can be unlocked using a mask

This is not the first time that Apple's Face ID is being cheated. Earlier, a team of Vietnamese researchers has claimed that they successfully unlocked the device with the help of a mask. According to the Vietnam researchers who work in the security firm Bkav, Apple's face recognition feature was successfully fooled using a mask costing just $150.

"Nose was made by a handmade artist. We use 2D printing for other parts (similar to how we tricked Face Recognition nine years ago). The skin was also hand-made to trick Apple's Artificial Intelligence," said the security agency in a blog post.

The security firm also warns that the face recognition feature of Apple is not at all an effective security measure which will guarantee the privacy of the device. As of now, Apple has not reacted to these claims.

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