Impressed by Samsung Galaxy S8’s secure iris scanner? Wait till you read about what these German hackers did…

BERLIN, Germany - When South Korean smartphone giant, Samsung release its Galaxy S8, it made a big deal about the handset’s iris scanner, which it said was supposed to be a highly secure and a convenient way to unlock the S8 and authenticate payments.

However, now, a German hacking collective, that has previously conquered the iPhone’s TouchID fingerprint sensor, has fooled the system with a dummy eye.

The hacking collective called Chaos Computer Club managed to unlock an S8 using a picture of the owner’s eye with a contact lens placed on top of it, to mimic the curvature of a physical eyeball. 

According to Dirk Engling, Chaos Computer Club’s spokesperson, “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. The security risk to the user from iris recognition is even bigger than with fingerprints, as we expose our irises a lot. Under some circumstances, a high-resolution picture from the internet is sufficient to capture an iris.”

The hackers have stated that you can dupe the iris scanner with a picture taken from social media sites, but digital photographs taken in night mode work best.

They further claimed, “Ironically, we got the best results with laser printers made by Samsung.”

The Galaxy S8 has been criticized for the poor placement and design of its fingerprint sensor the damages the user experience significantly. 

Many experts believe it is small, shallow, difficult to reach and positioned right next to the camera lens and the high-tech alternatives aren’t perfect either.

The iris scanner is also said to struggle to work in bright light and when you’re moving. 

Immediately after the launch, the phone’s facial recognition system was tricked by a photograph. 

This makes the PIN code, that most reliable way of unlocking the phone.