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Do not approach this wanted man and call 999
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News
THE SCARILY SIMPLE WAY TRACK AND TRACE QR CODES CAN SCAM YOU
The government's track and trace system carries "potentially serious flaws",
according to a tech expert
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The government's coronavirus track and trace system carries "potentially serious
flaws" regarding personal information and data, according to a UK tech expert.
Customers across the nation are scanning QR codes with their mobile phones every
day at pubs, restaurants, gyms and other leisure facilities in an effort from
businesses to streamline the track and trace process.
And QR codes will be part of an official government track and trace mobile app
to be launched later this week.
However, the CEO of UK tech firm VST Enterprises Ltd has warned Brits that a
very simple scam could steal their personal information.
Louis-James Davis says the use of QR code scanning technology is flawed due to
its use of the black and white boxes, which can be subject to a process called
“attagging” or cloning.
Attagging is where a genuine QR code is physically replaced by a cloned QR code
which then redirects the person scanning that code to a website which appears
similar to the site they were expecting to find, but where personal data can be
intercepted and breached.
As the scanning user journey is the same, it is only tech savvy individuals that
may notice the domain name has changed.
Mr Davis says fraudulent financial transactions are a widespread problem in
India where QR codes are used much more regularly.
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Mr Davis said: “Essentially QR codes can be cloned and redirected to other
information points or websites.
"Often criminals and hackers will exploit this by putting a fake QR code over a
genuine QR code. So a QR code for example on scanning would link to the genuine
website www.similardomain.com but a fake QR code can be made up, printed off and
placed over the genuine code to redirect to www.similar-domain.com.
"At this point the member of the public is tricked into entering their personal
information, private data or financial information.
"The rogue website looks and feels exactly like the genuine one and is made to
mirror it precisely.”
Mr Davies says he has highlighted the serious security flaws of using QR codes
in healthcare and ID technology to the government.
He added: "When you are dealing with the public’s personal information and
private data, security is of paramount importance and crucial to public
confidence.
"When the government first launched the NHS contact tracing app there were many
concerns raised about privacy, protection of data, tracking of location data and
the security flaws of using bluetooth proximity technology.
"The use of QR code technology in a government contact tracing app where the
public are being asked to scan a QR code before going into a sports stadium, bar
or venue leaves their data and personal information at serious risk.
"Because QR code readers and encoders are open source technology - free to use
and manipulate - there are literally 1000’s of readers and encoders in the app
stores.
"They don’t work on a closed loop security system which means the QR code design
might not be unique and scanning and decoding can be exploited and/or
manipulated.
"QR codes also have to be scanned close up within inches thus meaning that the
scanning of a QR code for contact tracing already breaches a safe two metre
social distancing protocol.”
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