Latest news with #QRcode
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Encrypted QR Codes are here. Should workplaces be using them?
Companies go to great lengths to protect sensitive personal and financial information. But as cybercriminals become increasingly sophisticated, scams are on the rise, putting key information at risk of being compromised. Scammers often use phishing techniques to access secure data or personal information. Cybersecurity company Egress reports that QR Code scams in emails accounted for 12.4% of all phishing emails in 2023, jumping from 1.4% just a year prior. Health care, hospitality, education, and insurance industries are most likely to be targeted with phishing schemes, according to a 2024 report from cybersecurity firm KnowBe4. While companies have long been aware of email phishing scams, QR Code "quishing" (QR Code + phishing) scams have presented a new way to manipulate and deceive. Quishing targets businesses in a few ways: Instead of taking users to legitimate websites, QR Codes direct users to fake websites that may prompt them to provide banking access or enter personal information like passwords. Fake QR Codes can also prompt users to download malware onto their devices, which can wreak havoc. Phishing is one of the most common crimes, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crime Complaint Center. Phishing crimes were reported nearly 299,000 times in 2023—a 161% increase since 2019, according to a 2023 report from the Bureau. Some of those scams include the ubiquitous black-and-white squares that people have hijacked in phishing scams, prompting the Federal Trade Commission to issue a warning about the risks of QR Codes in 2023. Savvy workers might assume they're not susceptible to scams, but those geometric codes, difficult to distinguish from one another, may appear more benign than a sketchy URL. "They want you to scan the QR Code and open the URL without thinking about it," Alvaro Puig, a consumer education specialist for the FTC, said in a statement. Quishing scams often leverage brand names or familiar emails to dupe busy employees. A common scam is phishing emails that impersonate Docusign. Bad actors ask people to access funds from a "funds settlement agreement" by scanning a QR Code, which points them to a fake Docusign website where they can fork over their sign-in credentials. Other common Quishing attempts include Zoom meeting invitations and HR reminders for policy reviews, according to KnowBe4. The company's research found that globally, nearly 49% of clicks on phishing links in the third quarter of 2024 purported to be emails about HR or IT matters. Consumers may be familiar with public-facing scams, such as fraudsters tricking people into sharing payment information on fraudulent websites using fake QR Codes stickered onto parking meters. Fraud investigations into fake QR Codes have been underway across the nation, with cities like Austin, Houston, and San Antonio in Texas, as well as Newtown, Massachusetts, for instance. Meanwhile, however, businesses may face a different kind of threat from within if employees aren't aware of the risks of QR Codes or if hackers infiltrate systems to access information protected by QR Codes that lack extra security. As workplaces grapple with new security threats, businesses may seek extra protective measures. Uniqode examined industry reports and news coverage to find out how new technologies like encrypted QR Codes and ink authentication can help protect workplaces from scams. Companies can protect themselves by using encrypted QR Codes to secure their links further. There are varying levels of encryption, but they generally utilize a secret decryption key that allows the scanner, typically a phone, to read the QR Code before moving forward. For example, Google experimented in 2012 with encrypted QR Codes that allowed people to log into their email from a public computer. Users could scan the QR Code on their smartphone with the approved credentials; once this decryption passed, the email on the public computer would automatically log in. QR Codes can also be password protected, requiring a code to open the link and proceed. Dynamic QR Codes allow users to add passwords that can be changed later, whereas static QR Codes, once created, stay the same. Encrypted QR Codes can be helpful in settings where the shared information requires confidentiality or added security, such as health care records, event tickets, and legal documentation. Encryption helps protect the data stored inside a QR Code so only authorized users can access it. Businesses can use encrypted information to protect confidential consumer information during a breach and as an extra safeguard against extortion. An extra layer of security to guard data from bad actors can also give companies greater peace of mind. Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers pioneered Invisible ink authentication, an advanced security measure designed to hide QR Codes in plain sight, such as on documents, to prevent counterfeiting. Invisible QR Codes have fluorescence—so they cannot be seen by the naked eye or detected by a camera lens. Only users aware of the fluorescence can utilize a specialized filter to detect and scan the code, accessing key information securely. Another advancement is algorithm-driven anti-copy technology, which adds a layer of security to QR Codes by preventing counterfeiters from passing off knock-offs as the real thing. Unlike regular QR Codes, which can be copied or modified to point users to a fake website, anti-copy security QR Codes have a subtle watermark and use an algorithm for authentication that makes them extremely hard to fake. They're particularly useful when used in pairs for shipping a product, where the top QR Code can be used multiple times along the shipping route, but the bottom QR Code can only be used once—authenticating the product. Old-school, street-smart techniques should not be underestimated in their capacity to protect people from quishing scams. "The good news is that the way to [be] safe from this malicious activity is to use the steps we have already learned from phishing and other social engineering attacks, such as only scanning codes from trusted sources, verifying links are legitimate and looking out for other red flags," Garrett McManaway, chief information security officer of Wayne State University, wrote in a blog post. Duke University security guidelines recommend only using native QR Code scanners, checking the URL to see if the code sends the user to the anticipated website, and other website details that signal authenticity, such as a matching logo and color scheme. Another hallmark of a quishing scam is a false sense of urgency—attempts to push victims to act quickly without thinking, such as contacting someone immediately to deliver a package or log in to an account due to alleged suspicious activity. People can protect themselves by being wary. Take a moment to think before scanning, avoid short URLs, and, if it seems fishy, there's a good chance it is phishy. Story editing by Alizah Salario. Additional editing by Elisa Huang. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick. This story was produced by Uniqode (Beaconstac) and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker.
Finextra
4 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Alipay embeds payments into AR glasses
Alipay has integrated QR code payments into augmented reality glasses from Chinese outfit Rockid to enable users to pay for products instore by looking at the label. 2 Over 250,000 units of Rokid Glasses have already been ordered, integrated with Alipay's digital payment technology for AR glasses. After linking their Alipay accounts to the Rockid app, users enable voice verification to initiate and confirm the purchases after scanning the merchant's Alipay QR code. Alipay says transactions complete in seconds vs. 20-30 seconds for phone-based QR payments. 'Equipping Rokid Glasses with payment capabilities brings users a smoother and more intuitive experience, while also ushering the AI glasses industry into the era of payment," says Zhu Mingming, founder and CEO of Rokid. "Behind this innovation is close collaboration with Alipay on both payment and risk technologies. Looking ahead, we will continue to explore new experiences together.' He believes that in the coming years, the technology could enable people to complete transactions simply by looking at or gesturing toward a product, and support interactive product discovery — letting users access real-time information, virtual try-ons, or personalized recommendations to create an immersive shopping experience.
South China Morning Post
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Chinese man dons placard declaring he owns 2 buildings to attract partner who values family
A man in southern China who went to a boat racing event and tried to attract a girlfriend by displaying a placard saying that he owned two buildings has trended on mainland social media. The online post has prompted more than 1,000 people to get in touch with the man. As people gathered to watch an event in Guangzhou, Guangdong province on May 31 to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, the man with the message around his neck drew much attention, Jimu News reported. 'Unmarried. Haizhu. Two buildings,' the placard read. The 35-year-old man shows off his placard. He said he is looking for a partner who values family. Photo: Haizhu is a downtown district of Guangzhou. On the flipside of the card, the man displayed a QR code of his social media account so that people could contact him.
Wall Street Journal
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Taste and Traditions' Review: Marvelous Menus
The quick-response code, or QR code, infiltrated American restaurants in 2020 as we emerged from the Covid-19 lockdowns and began, tentatively, to eat communally again. For diners, the advantage was that the codes were supposedly more hygienic. We simply pointed our phones at the postage-stamp-size hieroglyphs, pulled up the menu and, sometimes, could even place our orders. No need for human contact or touching a potentially contaminated menu. Originally invented in 1994 to help speed up Japanese car production, QR codes appealed to restaurants because they did away with printing costs and could even help expedite food ordering and delivery, leading to quicker table turnover. However, something was lost in this transition. In 'Tastes and Traditions: A Journey Through Menu History,' Nathalie Cooke elucidates the value of the traditional restaurant menu. More than a list of dishes, it is a medium that can amuse, flatter, educate and tantalize diners, elevating the restaurant experience. Ms. Cooke's copiously illustrated book is filled with color images of menus both ancient and modern, including a bill of fare made up solely of emojis (from a boundary-pushing 'immersive dining' restaurant in Bangkok). Some of the most over-the-top examples were designed by artists whose illustrations helped prepare diners for the meal to come. One of the earliest, a 1751 menu for a feast at Louis XV's 'country retreat' (read: palace), is bordered with hand-painted vines, musical instruments and little hunters chasing wild boars, signaling that wine, music and game would be part of the meal. The artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's 1896 pre-Christmas menu for Paris's Le Suisse promised a holiday spree with tuxedoed gentlemen drinking champagne and carousing with scantily clad women. As technologies evolved, menus began to include photographs and then, for the ultimate in realism, sculptures of each dish, as in the startlingly accurate food models displayed outside eateries in Japan. Restaurants have long realized that their menus can serve as advertising. Ms. Cooke, a professor of English at McGill University, includes a 'souvenir menu' from Manhattan's old Shanghai Royal, which the restaurant promised to mail to any address the diner liked. In this case, one Bernie Marlin sent the menu to a pal in 1946 with the enigmatic notation 'First date—home 3:30.'
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Blinq lands $25M to further its mission to make business cards passé
It's 2025, but business cards are still in vogue — just visit any conference or industry expo and you'll end up with a pile that's likely to be discarded sooner than later. But as smartphones have become our repositories of information and contacts, people are understandably keen to try out digital alternatives to business cards. Blinq, a startup out of Melbourne, bet that trend would take off when it started off as a hobby project in 2017, offering a digital business card app with a QR-code widget. Today, the company is making off with a bag of gold: It now has more than 2.5 million users — both individual customers and across 500,000 companies in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia. Off the back of that progress, the startup has now raised a $25 million Series A funding round led by Touring Capital. Returning backers Blackbird Ventures and Square Peg Capital also participated in the round, as did new investor HubSpot Ventures. '[The Blinq's QR] was a simple, personal way to share who you are, and it worked well between iPhone users. But it wasn't until late 2019 when most Android devices caught up on QR scanning, and adoption started to grow,' Jerrod Webb, CEO and founder of Blinq, told TechCrunch. 'Then came COVID — QR codes went mainstream, in-person meetings became more intentional, and Blinq's focus on making those moments seamless and memorable started to take off.' The startup has taken the B2C2B route ever since. The app lets users create several customized digital business cards for different needs and connect with contacts using them. The app can also automatically capture details and sync them with CRM systems such as HubSpot or Salesforce by using QR codes, email signatures, NFCs, short links, or video call backgrounds. Blinq is used by individuals, small businesses, and global enterprises, and 80% of its customer base is located in the U.S., Webb said. Its team has scaled from five employees based in Melbourne to 67 across Sydney, Melbourne, New York, and San Francisco, supporting its product development and go-to-market efforts. 'Every time someone uses Blinq, they're introducing it to someone new. And further, we see more frequent usage by active users the longer they're on the platform,' Webb said. 'That built-in virality drives organic growth and keeps our customer acquisition costs low. On the business side, companies pay per seat. As more employees adopt the product, teams grow organically, creating expansion revenue over time.' Blinq competes with several companies providing similar digital business card services, including Mobilo, Popl, Wave, and Wix. Of course, the app also has to contend with social networking platforms like LinkedIn, landing pages, and services like Linketree.
