So the Face ID can differentiate between identical twins, but not a mother and her 10-year-old? — Apple iPhone X’s Face ID fooled again, this time by a 10-year-old
After Apple ’s new and “secure” Face ID was duped using a mask, the technology is facing another low moment, now being fooled by a 10-year-old. This was discovered by Attaullah Malik and his wife Sana Sherwani, whose son Amaar, managed to break into Sherwani’s iPhone X. How? Because he looks a lot like his mother.
Malik describes in his YouTube post, that after the couple received their new iPhone X s, both of them set up the Face ID soon after. That’s when their son walked into the bedroom to admire their new pair of iPhone Xs. “There’s no way you’re getting access to this phone,” the older Malik remembers his wife telling her son, in a half-joking show of strictness. He continues, “Acting exactly as a kid would do when asked to not do something, he picked up her phone and with just a glance got right in.”
The parents were naturally shocked. Ten-year-old Ammar thought it was hilarious though. “It was funny at first,” Malik told WIRED in a phone call a few days later. “But it wasn’t really funny afterward. My wife and I text all the time and there might be something we don’t want him to see. Now my wife has to delete her texts when there’s something she doesn’t want Ammar to look at.” ALSO READ: Apple iPhone X: How to set up and use Face ID
These come just days after a couple of Vietnamese hackers used a composite 3D-printed mask, to fool Apple’s Face ID authentication system. They stressed that the face recognition is “not mature enough” to guarantee security for smartphones. Although, to be fair, the method used by them was largely impractical. Their method required obtaining a detailed digital scan of their victim’s face, and building a mask out of 3-D-printed plastic, silicone, makeup, and paper. But again, Apple’s Senior Vice President Phil Schiller has clearly said at the launch event that the Face ID can distinguish human’s real face from masks, thanks to its artificial intelligence (AI). ALSO READ: Apple iPhone X Face ID put to test with identical twins; the results are puzzling
