QR Code Care

QR codes are awesome, but they’re also one of the fastest-rising points of attack for stealing your data.

You can’t have wonder in the world without grime; the light and the dark are intertwined inexorably, and it’s no less true for technology than for any matter of deep and timeless philosophy.

Take QR codes, for instance.

The other day, I went strolling about town with my wife and a friend of ours, having a great old time.

Then, lo, my friend pauses and whips out their phone. A wild QR code had appeared!

At the corner of this little sloping yard, two QR codes stood on metal rods, encased in plastic, turning the edge of an otherwise ordinary-seeming garden into a miniature museum display.

The codes led us to a really lovely piece of local news about the old woman who lived in that house her entire life, and had been featured on the local news. It touched our hearts, and the evening was better for the discovery.

And yet, any time we scan a QR code in the wild, we’re running an incredible risk. That’s because bad actors — scammers desperate to steal whatever they can, wherever they can — frequently use QR codes in their illicit ventures.