Tag: qr code security

An innovative new solution has been developed to add security to parked bicycles.

A new security system based on QR codes for bikes being parked on campus has been developed by a team of three students who call themselves the Beta Adroits.

The group had frequently heard of problems with bikes that were being stolen and sought new on-campus security.

What they accomplished was a system of QR codes that can help to provide added security to bicycles that are being parked on campus. One of the Beta Adroits members, Arun Balaji, explained that “There were a number of cases in our college where our college mates had their bikes stolen.” He added that “It was during the same period we were also extensively exposed to the brand new smartphone technology and found out how it could be used to scan QR codes.”

The group then realized that there was a very practical use for QR codes in solving the problem of stolen bikes.

Balaji said that the quick response codes could be affixed to the bicycles so that they can be scanned with smartphones or even with webcams.

The entire Beta Adroits group is made up of Sona College of Technology students who are seeking Computer Applications degrees. These students from Salem, Tamil Nadu are already 75 percent of the way through completing their source code and are nearly ready for implementing this new QRcode security system on their college campus.

The students and professors, alike, have been very receptive to the idea and are looking forward to seeing the system when it is put into place. The goal is to test it on their own campus and then introduce it to other schools throughout Chennai when it is found to work.

The group feels that if their system is, indeed, successful, then these QR codes could be used as an effective bicycle theft deterrent on college campuses. However, they also feel that there are a number of other useful applications, as well. They are hoping that this would make it easier to screen vehicles in offices, housing complexes, and large parking lots

Mobile marketers love these barcodes , but as consumers embrace them, unscrupulous efforts grow.

It’s difficult to open a magazine or a flyer, these days, without seeing QR codes in all of the adds, but just as their popularity grows, so does their attractiveness to unethical individuals who would take advantage of this opportunity to cause harm.

These little black and white codes may look simple enough, but they may now pose an underlying threat.

It took quite a while for consumers to start to feel the enthusiasm for QR codes that mobile marketers have felt from the start. This has meant that individuals who would seek to use them for harmful purposes have left them alone for quite some time. But as the scanning trend continues to grow, so have the hazards associated with the activity.

Malicious QR codes have started to pop up here and there now that the technology has become commonplace.

Though it is still rare for malicious QR codes to appear, they have started showing up on occasion, and their impact can be quite damaging. This is because there are far more mobile device users that have barcode scanners than there are those who have protection against the type of attack that a tainted scan could present.

QR codes are meant to make it easy to redirect a device user to an app or a website to provide information, generate a download, view a video, or even to help buy a product or make a charitable donation. However, when a permissive reader app has been used, even a seemingly harmless scan could place the user’s privacy at risk.

The most common strategy that is used in order to encourage malicious barcode scans is simply to place a sticker with the harmful code overtop of the legitimate square. Therefore, one of the best efforts that a device user can make to protect his or her security is simply to double check that the QR codes they scan are printed directly onto materials from companies that they trust, and aren’t printed onto a sticker. Downloading a scanner app with built in protection is also a highly recommended activity.