Samsung Galaxy S8's Iris Scanner Might Soon Be Used For Verifying Payments

One of the features carried over from the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 to the Galaxy S8 is the iris scanner. Right now, it can only be used to unlock the S8, but a report suggests Samsung wants to use the feature for authenticating financial transactions.

South Korean credit card companies actually want to implement iris scanning for verifying payments as they see it as a more secure than passwords and fingerprints, the Korea Herald reported. Unsurprisingly, Samsung Card Co. might be the first to implement the feature on its mobile app while other card companies are expected to follow.

If true, this won’t be the first time that iris scanning will be used to authenticate mobile payments. The Galaxy Note 7 was able to do the exact same thing for Samsung Pay transactions. As of now, the Galaxy S8 is the only smartphone on the market that comes with iris scanning technology.

The Galaxy S8 also comes with a fingerprint scanner and facial recognition technology. Verifying transactions with fingerprints is currently the norm for mobile payments. Facial recognition is still seen as insecure.

Facial recognition on the Galaxy S8, although fast, can easily be tricked with a high-resolution photo. Samsung has already released a security update to fix that vulnerability in Europe for the Galaxy S8 Plus, SamMobile reported.

Experts say iris scanning is the most secure form of biometric authentication on mobile devices, Phone Arena said. Samsung said the iris scanner on the Note 7 was “impossible to trick,” so the Galaxy S8’s iris scanner is expected to be as reliable.

The Korea Herald noted Shinhan, Hana and Woori are some of the other financial institutions that want to implement the Galaxy S8’s iris scanning technology for verifying mobile transactions. However, there’s no word yet on whether Samsung intends to bring this feature to the United States.