Fooling Facial Recognition Software

Last week I wrote a blog about the technology of facial recognition systems and not long after it posted a few articles were presented to me about a pretty simple and effective way to fool these systems. Makeup. By putting dark blocks of makeup in strategic places on your face you can fool any facial recognition software. The blocks don’t even have to be very large; it’s more a matter of where the makeup is on the face. Granted, the makeup required to fool these systems will sort of make you look like you stepped out of an 80’s hair metal band music video but some people just might do it anyhow.

Some of the other ways to fool these systems are even easier and much less conspicuous than copious amounts of silly makeup. They include wearing a pair of glasses to hide your eyes, hiding your ears with long hair or a hat, facial jewelry, massive amounts of facial hair and even gaining weight can keep you from being recognized.

Even the security features used to lock down sensitive information isn’t immune to flaws. In another blog I mentioned that it is possible for criminals to crack biometric security systems forcibly but if the system relies solely on facial recognition, the system can be fooled with a simple photograph of the computer’s owner.

This sort of technology has come a long way but it looks like it needs a bit more work before it can truly be relied upon to safeguard important things.

~TeCHS