Face value: What it takes to fool facial recognition

ESET security researcher Jake Moore is scheduled to present findings at RSAC 2026 regarding vulnerabilities in widely-used facial recognition systems. The research demonstrates how consumer-grade technology, including smart glasses, deepfakes, and face swap applications, can be utilized to bypass biometric authentication controls. This highlights a significant risk to organizations relying solely on facial recognition for identity verification and access management. The ability to spoof biometric data suggests that current liveness detection mechanisms may be insufficient against evolving adversarial techniques. While no specific threat actor campaign is identified, the availability of these tools lowers the barrier for unauthorized access. Security teams should evaluate multi-factor authentication strategies and enhance liveness detection protocols to mitigate the risk of biometric spoofing. This research underscores the urgent need for robust identity proofing standards.

ESET’s Jake Moore used smart glasses, deepfakes and face swaps to ‘hack’ widely-used facial recognition systems – and he'll demo it all at RSAC 2026

ESET security researcher Jake Moore is scheduled to present findings at RSAC 2026 regarding vulnerabilities in widely-used facial recognition systems. The research demonstrates how consumer-grade technology, including smart glasses, deepfakes, and face swap applications, can be utilized to bypass biometric authentication controls. This highlights a significant risk to organizations relying solely on facial recognition for identity verification and access management. The ability to spoof biometric data suggests that current liveness detection mechanisms may be insufficient against evolving adversarial techniques. While no specific threat actor campaign is identified, the availability of these tools lowers the barrier for unauthorized access. Security teams should evaluate multi-factor authentication strategies and enhance liveness detection protocols to mitigate the risk of biometric spoofing. This research underscores the urgent need for robust identity proofing standards. ESET’s Jake Moore used smart glasses, deepfakes and face swaps to ‘hack’ widely-used facial recognition systems – and he'll demo it all at RSAC 2026 ESET’s Jake Moore used smart glasses, deepfakes and face swaps to ‘hack’ widely-used facial recognition systems – and he'll demo it all at RSAC 2026