The Samsung Galaxy S8 has yet to hit retailers’ shelves and yet it’s already at the centre of a security scandal.
The phone, which was formally unveiled earlier this week, is Samsung’s first flagship release since last year’s ill-fated Galaxy Note 7.
Instead of crawling out from the Note’s battery fire caused shadow, however, it appears that the S8 could be troubled by it’s own issues.
Rather than battery combustion concerns, it’s the S8’s facial recognition feature that’s cause for concern this time around.
The S8’s face recognition feature, which means the phone is capable of learning your face and unlocking automatically when you, and only you pick up the phone, was one of the phone’s big talking points during its grand unveiling.
It might not be as secure as we were all led to believe, however.
A video has already emerged of the face recognition feature being fooled by a photograph of a user.
This means that if your phone was stolen, all the thief would need is your image to be able to gain access to all of your private emails, images and contacts.
The compromising video was captured by iDeviceHelp and shows the S8 being unlocked by being pointed to a fullscreen selfie of a user displayed on another phone.
Although taking a few attempts to fool the phone, the S8 was eventually duped by the selfie, unlocking its secrets for anyone with nefarious intentions to behold.
According to an unnamed industry source speaking with The Korea Herald, the S8’s facial tracking tech is not secure enough to be used to protect your phone.
“For now, the facial recognition technology is only intended for fun. It should not be considered as a foolproof security measure,” the report states.
While the S8’s facial recognition might not be particularly secure, it’s not the phone’s only biometric security measure.
The S8 also features an integrated iris scanner as well as the traditional fingerprint sensor.
Unlike past years, the S8’s fingerprint scanner has been moved to the rear of the device.
That’s because the S8’s physical home button has been ditched in order to allow the phone’s screen to be stretched out across more of the handset’s by.
Potential security shortcomings aside, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is shaping up as the phone of 2017.
Its stunning, near edge-to-edge screen and sleek, metal-edged, glass-backed design is backed up by a flurry of high-end features.
This includes a powerful new oct-core processor and 4GB of RAM as well as a sizeable 3,000mAh battery and Google’s Android 7.0 Nougat OS skinned with a stylish new Samsung UX interface.
On a hardware front, the phone’s 5.8-inch screen packs a stunning 2960 x 1440 pixel QHD+ resolution and lines up alongside a 12-megapixel rear-mounted camera and an 8-megapixel selfie snapper.
Despite having been unveiled, the Galaxy S8 won’t hit retailers’ shelves until April 28.
Those looking to snap up the phone will have to fork out £689 to secure the phone that boasts 64GB of internal storage.
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