The FBI has forced a suspect in unlocking the iPhone X using the Face ID feature of Apple and this is definitely a first to this modern day.
According to Engadget, the crime suspect named Grant Michalski was accused of alleged child abuse according to the documents spotted and the Agents from Columbus, Ohio decided to enter his home. A search warrant was released and they forced the 28-year-old to put his face in front of the device and unlock it. Following this, they were able to freely access and search for the chats, photos, and any other potential evidence.
In line with this, they discovered his ad on Craigslist entitled "Taboo," giving FBI all the more reason to continuously investigate him. They discovered later on the emails where he discussed incest and sex with minors with another defendant named William Weekly. The report added they also discussed sexual acts with an individual, which Weekly identified as his daughter.
Moreover, the FBI has used the fingerprints of the suspects to unlock their phones. Aside from this, they even tried to crack the iPhone by 3D printing the finger of a dead person. Authorities failed to access the passwords at the moment without a fingerprint and a face. Unfortunately, Apple cannot access them as well and even refused to create backdoors for law enforcement. CEO Tim Cook revealed that doing this will compromise the security of all the users.
This has a point as hacking tools developed by the NSA were even stolen by the hackers. However, this does not stop some third party companies to do something. The earlier mentioned source revealed Israelli firm Cellebrite created an unlocking device that may help FBI to unlock the San Bernardino killer's iPhone. Graykey is reportedly another device that unlocks two iPhones simultaneously in just a few minutes.
It was a surprise using Face ID or other similar recognition systems from Huawei and other device makers to unlock the suspect's phone because this has never been done yet. In the end, it was not clear as well whether it is against the law to do this or not. However, the law enforcement can still obviously use someone's face as an evidence for witness identification and other purposes.
Furthermore, the agents have managed to obtain some information through using the suspect's Face ID, but not the entire data. Sadly, they are not able to keep the phone open long enough.
