The invention relates to a method for authenticating an optically variable security element (1), in particular a diffractive security element, said method involving steps: a) capturing an image sequence comprising at least one individual image of the security element (1) by means of a sensor (31), in particular of a hand-held device (3), preferably a smartphone, tablet or PDA; and b) verifying whether at least one piece of predefined optical information is included in at least one individual image of the image sequence.