Samsung S8 facial recognition feature fooled by photo, tester says

Samsung's new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8, was unveiled this week with one particularly cool feature. It will unlock by simply identifying your face with its front camera.

But now it seems that a mere photo of you will do the honors.

The South Korean electronics giant did not comment specifically on the fact that its new product could be fooled, but stressed in a company statement that important payment and other data remains locked behind security layers that are more robust, such as iris and fingerprint authentication.

"It is important to reiterate that facial recognition, while convenient, can be only used for opening your Galaxy S8 or S8+ and currently cannot be used to authenticate access to Samsung Pay or Secure Folder," Samsung said.

The company adds that when an S8 owner sets up facial recognition for the first time, a disclaimer is shown that reads: "Your phone can be unlocked be someone with similar looks (such as a twin), and face recognition is less secure than Pattern, PIN, Password, Iris or Fingerprint."

The trickable nature of the phone's facial recognition feature came to light after a blogger for Mexico's MarcianoTech tried the phone at a Samsung event in New York this week. In his Periscope broadcast, he employs another smartphone whose screen features a still photo of him; after waving the other phone over the S8, the phone unlocks. The broadcast was later picked up by YouTube channel iDeviceHelp. USA TODAY wasn't able to test it.

Samsung is counting on Galaxy S8 and S8+ to snuff out the furor over the company's ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 phones, whose defective batteries caused many units worldwide to catch fire. Airlines even began banning passengers from bringing the devices on board, and the company eventually recalled the model.

With digital security increasingly an issue for consumers, tech companies are eager to roll out improved levels of encryption as well as features that secure the contents of what increasingly is a digital wallet.

Facial recognition software isn't new. A few years ago, Microsoft rolled out a Windows 10 feature called Windows Hello that uses cameras built into its laptops to replace a traditional login password.

Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter.