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Firefox Now Lets You Know When You’ve Been Hacked

Getting wrapped up in the innumerable data breaches that occur every year isn’t a matter of if, but when. Security breaches run the gamut from the credit rating agency Equifax to the soup and bread bowl peddler Panera, which is why Firefox’s newest feature will notify you directly if any of your passwords have been exposed to the big wide world of hackers.

Originally unveiled in beta in June, Firefox Monitor scans the web for email addresses that have been compromised in various hacks. It’s based on a partnership with Have I Been Pwned, a tool developed by Microsoft developer Troy Hunt that’s been quietly monitoring breaches since 2013. The website’s partnership with Firefox will broaden its reach significantly, however. Firefox’s August data report put the browser’s monthly active user base at 250 million.

Firefox Monitor’s functionality should be familiar to anyone who’s used Have I Been Pwned. After signing up, you input their email address into a search tab, and the tool references it across the scores of compromised accounts spread across the internet. If you’ve been pwned, Monitor will say so.

FBI Unlocks a Suspect’s iPhone Using His Face

It only seemed a matter of time before a law enforcement agency would use the iPhone’s Face ID technology to unlock the device and access information vital to a criminal investigation. In August, the FBI became the first agency to use Face ID to unlock an iPhone X, according to Forbes.

Suspected of either receiving or disseminating child pornography, 28-year-old Columbus, Ohio resident Grant Michalski cooperated with the FBI when asked to unlock his phone via Face ID. The FBI raided his home using a search warrant, allowing investigators to open his device and comb through his messages and online footprint. So far, Michalski has been charged with “receiving and possessing child pornography” along with another defendant with whom he communicated on Craigslist. No trial date has been set so far, per Forbes.

The FBI’s methods pose many interesting legal implications when it comes to gathering data that might prove useful when investigating a crime. Since technology companies started using biometric information as a personal security measure, it has been a hotly litigated question of how and whether law enforcement can to compel suspects to hand over biometric data used to unlock their devices. Apple’s introduction of Face ID with the launch of the iPhone X brought the question into starker relief.