This week, Samsung announced its new Galaxy S8 and S8+ flagships. After the embarrassing saga surrounding last year's launch of its Galaxy Note7 - which was recalled, twice, following a series of fires caused by battery issues - the company has a lot to prove if it's to win back the trust of its customers, as it promised to do.
Already, though, the Galaxy S8 isn't off to the best of starts, as it seems that one of its key security features may not be quite as secure as the company implied.
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ offer a range of security options, including face recognition, an iris scanner, a fingerprint sensor, and more 'conventional' methods such as PIN and pattern unlock. But the first of the measures on that list - the facial recognition system - has been shown to be less than secure.
A video published by iDeviceHelp apparently shows a Galaxy S8 being unlocked with the facial recognition feature, using a photo shown on the screen of another S8. It wasn't instantaneous, and required moving the second handset around until the locked device eventually detected the image and unlocked itself - but the whole process took only a few seconds.
The video raises serious questions about the security of the new devices - and it seems that this isn't an isolated incident. Separate to the video, The Korea Herald cited unnamed 'industry sources' who said that the Galaxy S8's facial recognition system was insufficient to secure the devices.
"The phones can be unlocked by the face of a sleeping person, or even just by a photo," one source stated. "For now, the facial recognition technology is only intended for fun. It should not be considered as a foolproof security measure."
Source: iDeviceHelp (YouTube) via Gizmodo
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