Cyber researcher cancels talk on hacking Apple's facial recognition

An attendee uses the Face ID function on the new iPhone X during a presentation for the media in Beijing, China. [Photo: Reuters]

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO- A cyber security researcher canceled a hacking conference briefing on how he said he could crack biometric facial recognition on Apple Inc iPhones, at the request of his employer, which called the work “misleading.”

The prospect that Face ID could be defeated is troubling because it is used to lock down functions on tens of millions of iPhones from banking and healthcare apps to emails, text messages and photos.