In view of the recent news that has been going around with Samsung Galaxy S8’s iris scanner being hacked, Samsung Electronics released a statement stating it is not easy to crack the Galaxy S8’s iris recognition. The statement comes after a claim made by a group of German hackers who said they had cracked the phone’s iris scanner.
“Although the one-minute video (that shows the sensor being fooled with a dummy eye) appears simple, it is hard to see that happening in real life,” a Samsung spokesperson told The Korea Herald.
“You need a camera that can capture infrared light (used in the video), which is no longer available in the market. Also, you need to take a photo of the owner’s iris and steal his smartphone. It is difficult for the whole scenario to happen in reality.”
Samsung’s statement comes after a German hacking group called Chaos Computer Club posted a video on YouTube showing that it could easily break the Galaxy S8’s iris recognition lock with a printer, a picture of an iris photo taken with a camera and contact lenses.
As shown in the video, members of the collective take a photo of the owner’s eye with the camera that can capture infrared light and print it out with a Samsung leisure printer. They then placed contact lenses on top of the picture to copy the curvature of the eye.
CCC spokesman Dirk Engling said, “Under some circumstances, a high-resolution picture from the internet is sufficient to capture an iris.”
“If you value the data on your phone -- and possibly want to even use it for payment -- using the traditional pin protection is a safer approach than using body features for authentication,” he said.
Samsung has been utilizing its iris scanner for mobile payment service Samsung Pay, stating the biometric technology is “one of the safest ways to keep your phone locked” and also a person’s iris patterns are “virtually impossible to replicate.”
Do you have a Samsung Galaxy S8/+, If yes then do let us now in the comments about what do you think about how secure the iris scanner is.
