iPhone X: The Most Vulnerable Smartphone Ever?

The facial recognition technology introduced by Apple for its new iPhone X model unveiled this week gives criminals an opportunity to access confiscated or stolen phones, Julio Cesar Fort, a partner and security engineer at Blaze Information Security, told Sputnik.

According to Fort, criminals can easily abuse the technology and use the new feature to their own advantage.

"Now with Face ID, all it takes is to seize the phone and point the camera at the subject's face to gain access to the device," Fort said.

The expert noted that the police would also be able to more easily gain access to seized gadgets.

"For instance, previously if law enforcement wanted access to a seized phone, most likely they would need to pair it with a forensics device, or would have to use techniques to guess the correct PIN, or coerce the subject to reveal his passcode. It certainly required more expensive techniques and trained personnel," the expert explained. "Face ID lowers the bar of attack introducing a new threat model and opening an avenue for an everyday police officer or a jealous partner to unlock someone's phone."

In addition, the new system can be easily hacked, which can have negative security implications difficult to prevent.

"Several face recognition systems have been hacked in the past, in some cases using a simple photo downloaded from the phone owner's Facebook page, or in other more elaborate attacks using a 3D model of the subject's face. An identical-looking twin or a doppelganger, for example, may also be able to unlock the phone and potentially expose the entire digital life of a subject," Fort stated.

A similar point of view was expressed by Choong-Fook Fong, CEO of LGMS, a professional information security service firm.

Commenting on the launch of the new iPhone X, the expert warned of hacking dangers, telling Sputnik "nothing is foolproof" when it comes to technology.

"How are we going to protect that unique data? It can be obtained by criminals and people can impersonate you by obtaining that data," Fong stated.

Apple this week unveiled the iPhone X, a $999 gadget that will allow users to unlock it using facial recognition technology. Many experts expressed concerns about the vulnerability of the technology to hacking and possible negative implications for human security.