No matter which near field communication phone you use, one of the biggest slices of the near field communication company pie is and will remain Quick Response Codes. These codes kicked off the entire idea of NFC, and although there’ve been a few contenders, so far there’s nothing out there that’s going to push them off the top of the hill. In fact, consumer awareness of QR Codes is actually going up each and every time it’s tested, so the response rates for these ads are going up pretty fast, too!
This means the technology is about to be adopted, big time — but it also means that there’ll be more and more security challenges in the future. These go beyond ordinary password safety and password security issues: In a recent posting on CSO, the blog for senior security executives, David Braue outlined a couple of different ways that hackers could attack legitimate Quick Response Codes, especially by pasting a new code over the real ones that a marketer has already posted up!
What Should A Near Field Communication Company Do About Exploits?
If you’re new to Quick Response Code marketing, it might make you nervous to realize there are only a few things you can do to make sure that your QR Codes are never used for malicious purposes. But first things first: Hacker attacks on QR Codes still exist out there in the world of conjecture, not fact. There’s no evidence that hackers are taking a strong interest in QR Codes. But as they become more common, it will happen.
How to prepare now:
1) Check Up on Your QR Codes: Every time you put out a QR Code in a public area, you should know where it is. If a code is on a billboard, on a storefront, or anywhere else it can be accessed by the public, it could be at risk. But you’ll know your code is working correctly when you see “normal” traffic through it. If the traffic suddenly stops, check up to make sure that the code is still there and hasn’t been tampered with.
2) Make Distinctive QR Codes: Distinctive, branded QR Codes with special colors or other design features are far more likely to get attention, so you should be using them anyway. But what’s more, it’ll help people to know that they’re dealing with a legitimate link to your brand and not a counterfeit code. It’ll be much more difficult for a hacker to simulate a highly designed and colorful code than a plain one.
3) Participate in User Education: Seal the deal with your users by making sure that they start a relationship with you as soon as possible after they click your link. That means starting them off with a username and password or other kind of secure user account. Although you can’t change the tides, you can remind people about the basics of password security to help them navigate the online world a little better — and show that you care.