FBI Could Use Suspect’s Fingerprint To Unlock iPhones

Recently, Apple has gotten into a little tiff with the folks over at the FBI concerning the unlocking of a deceased man’s iPhone, as said person was a terrorist involved in the San Bernardino shooting on December 2nd that left a trail of destruction which included 14 deaths (excluding the two terrorists who were shot down, of course).

The FBI has taken legal means to have Apple unlock the dead terrorist’s iPhone 5c by disabling the security feature that wipes the phone after 10 unsuccessful tries, but Apple has clearly made their stand against such an order by the courts and will appeal against it.

Well, future incidences could actually see the FBI make use of fingerprints from a suspect’s corpse to unlock biometric security systems on handsets, as it is a whole lot easier to obtain fingerprint evidence from a dead person as opposed to a passcode or hack into a device.

After all, there are precedents when it comes to taking the legal route in producing fingerprints, and when one is dead, they cannot cower behind the 4th amendment protection which deals with unreasonable search or seizure. Do bear in mind that with Farook’s iPhone 5c, figuring out what the 6-digit alphanumeric passcode is the main challenge.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: iPhone, iPhone 5C, Social Hit