Galaxy Note 8’s Facial Recognition Sensor Can Be Fooled With A Hack

After Samsung galaxy note 7 for its exploding batteries, the South Korean smartphone manufacturer might be in trouble again. Reportedly, Samsung Galaxy Note 8’s facial recognition sensor can be easily hacked just by using a basic quality photo.

According to an article published on the Business insider, web developer Mel Tajon while testing a demo model of the Samsung galaxy Note 8 was able to unlock the device just by displaying the user’s photo from another smartphone in front of the facial recognition sensor. Tajon also claimed that he practiced the same activity using various other photographs from Instagram, Facebook, selfies from his iPhone etc and could successfully unlock the device every time. However, Samsung had already issued a disclaimer saying that the facial recognition feature is less secure than pin or pattern lock.

Going back to the past, Mel Tajon is not the first one to break into a biometric lock. Last year, some testers were able to unlock the Samsung Galaxy 8 similarly with a photo. According to a report published at The Verge, a hacker was able to break into Apple’s Touch Id Sensor. Also, few year back in 2011, Google’s facial unlock feature for its smartphones could be cracked easily.

Tajon believes that there could be various reasons for such an issue with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. There could be some fault with the demo version from BestBuy and maybe this problem will not persist with the actual smartphone or Samsung faked this feature in the demo version intentionally just like it had done earlier for several benchmark reports.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was launched on August 24 and is yet to make its way to the global market by September 15. However, such leaks could seriously affect its sale globally.

The smartphone users should never rely on biometric locks for securing their device because these sensors are never 100% accurate. Pattern and pin locks are always the best option for locking a device.

We are pretty sure that this time Samsung will definitely come up with a solution for this issue and we will have our hands on a secure Galaxy Note 8 soon.