A video recently surfaced showing how a photo can unlock the new Samsung Galaxy S8. The new flagship smartphone from the Korean conglomerate earned lots of praise from everyone who got the opportunity to see and handle the device upon its launch. Many were impressed by its game-changing design and various other features that cannot be found in other high-end smartphones.
One such characteristic that impressed many is the facial recognition feature. As demoed by Samsung and some of those who were at the Unpacked 2017 event, the Galaxy S8 can be unlocked just by looking at it. The handset can recognize the face of the user and determine if he or she is the owner who previously set the security feature. The face recognition feature is a sigh of relief for those who find it a tad difficult to use the fingerprint sensor located awkwardly at the back of the Galaxy S8.
However, the security feature is not so secure, after all. The video in question shows how a photo of the Galaxy S8 owner's face can be used to compromise the face recognition feature and unlock the smartphone. Redmond Pie mentioned that the phone and software in the video could still be in demo mode so there a huge chance Samsung will still be able to fix this issue before the Galaxy S8 drops in stores.
If the face recognition feature does prove to be a risk for Samsung Galaxy S8 owners, they can be assured that the smartphone can remain secure to some extent thanks to the other methods to authenticate the S8. For one, there's the fingerprint sensor which is hard to fool unless the person trying to access the smartphone has some Mission Impossible-like gadgets. The Galaxy S8 also utilizes an iris scanner plus PINs can still be relied on.
As The Verge noted, the Galaxy S8's face recognition is not recommended for making and completing transactions via Samsung Pay or Android Pay. As the video proved, anyone who has a photo of the owner can unlock the Galaxy S8. If that person has other things in mind other than checking the inbox for some incriminating texts, then the danger of losing vital information to thieves is a huge possibility.
