During the recent WWDC 2022, an annual conference for developers that was held 6-10 June, among other things, they presented a new edition of the Apple IOS16. The changes will be implemented to Face ID , which uses face recognition to unlock your smartphone and proceed with payments.

According to the statements, after installing the new operating system, users will have the possibility to unlock their smartphones, perform payments, and other actions when the iPhone is held horizontally using Face ID. This option has been launched already for the iPad, so its implementation in the iPhone was expected.

Still, company representatives notice that this function will be available only on several models, but they are not yet mentioned. Support of this option is one of the many others in iOS 16, that will be officially released this autumn.

In recent years, the system has become so advanced that it has learned to recognize faces, no matter whether you are wearing a mask, or sunglasses or look completely different from the way you look in the photo. By the way, the www.Photobooth.online service helps to take perfect photos for documents.

But let’s see is the Face ID system really so safe?

When you unlock your iPhone and watch at the front camera, your phone compares the biometrics and correlates it with data which is collected in the special processor Secure Enclave, whose entire challenge – to keep your phone totally secure (photos are processed only on the device and aren’t sent to Apple’s servers or anywhere else. All processing takes place inside the processor, so apps won’t get it either). If the face matches, your iPhone will unlock. If not, you will be asked to enter a password.

Generally, Face ID is safe

In the pursuit of perfect products, Apple constantly walks the thin line between security and simplicity. iPhone uses a system with an infrared sensor that is called TrueDepth. It projects a grid of 30 thousand invisible light points on the face. The infrared camera then picks up grid distortion as the user rotates their head, generating a 3D map of the face shape. The approach is similar to shooting actors in films and then turning their faces into animated characters.

Apple claims there’s a one in 50,000 possibility that someone’s fingerprint will be able to unlock your iPhone by mistake, and a one in 1,000,000 chance of someone’s face being able to do it. One in 10,000 people can just crack a 4-digit security code and a one in 1,000,000 chance of cracking your 6-digit code (and they take three tries before getting into ban).

The chance that someone will steal your phone and then occasionally unlock it using your biometrics or even by guessing your passcode is negligibly small.

The only caution is Identical twins or brothers and sisters that look practically the same are more likely to get a false-positive result. In this case, there is a chance that your brother or sister will be able to unlock your phone with your Face ID. Nevertheless, identical twins are only less than 1% of the population, so that’s not a story for many. If it is really trouble, just switch off Face ID and use a secure password.

Conclusion: Is Face ID as secure as promised?

No, single validation factor is effective enough on its own when it comes to preventing hacking. As effective as it currently is, it’s likely that hackers will soon find a solution to crash Apple’s Face ID. Individual authentication, whether its biometrics or security passwords have its disadvantages.

Facial identification and other related methods became popular because of their convenience and usability. Still they as vulnerable in the same way as other authentication elements. One day we will understand this and begin using a combination of more than one different authentication element.

Time passes and the technologies become smarter and hackers as well. With time, they could invent ways to disrupt inventions such as Face ID. Anyway, in case your device requires both several keys, it will be more complicated to attack. This reinforces our faith in the multifactor verification system. Apple must promptly combine its first-class Face ID with the other authentication elements to provide total security.

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