Post by account_disabled on Feb 20, 2024 1:11:27 GMT -6
Alert blog last week. Naturally, the warning boils down to security and privacy: Criminals can place QR codes in inconspicuous places or send them via text message or email, and then simply sit back and wait for payday in the form of money, startups. session or other confidential information. The New York Times reported that John Fokker, head of threat intelligence at cybersecurity company Trellix, says that Trellix found more than "60,000 QR code attack samples" in the third quarter of this year alone. El Veces wrote that the most popular scams involved impersonators of payroll and human resources personnel and postal scams, among others.
Early last year, police in several Texas cities said Mexico Mobile Number List they had found fraudulent QR codes placed on parking meters, directing people to a fake payment site. To avoid falling victim to bad code, the FTC suggests ignoring unexpected emails or other messages that you weren't expecting and that come with some kind of urgent request. It's also good to check the URL that appears on the screen when scanning to make sure it's a site you trust. On the other hand, even a legitimate QR code can show you a confusing and meaningless shortened web address, so if you know what site you want to visit, it's best to go there directly.
The Commission also recommends the old strategy of updating your devices and ensuring you have good, secure passwords and multi-factor authentication for sensitive accounts. If you're not sure how to do the second part, check out our two-factor authentication guide, which has instructions for several of the most popular sites and services. Beyond the FTC's recommendation, there are other things you can do. For one thing, don't download a QR code scanning app—the built-in camera apps for Android and iOS already do this, and sometimes the apps can be created for nefarious purposes.