{"id":33413,"date":"2012-06-12T10:09:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T10:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=33413"},"modified":"2012-06-11T23:11:30","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T23:11:30","slug":"bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Rankin: Can QR Codes Spread Computer Viruses?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/qr_malware.jpg\" alt=\"can qr codes spread computer viruses\" title=\"can qr codes spread computer viruses\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-33418\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Can QR Codes Spread Computer Viruses?<\/h3>\n<p>By Bob Rankin<\/p>\n<p>Any doubts I may have had about the viability of QR codes have evaporated. You know a new technology is catching on when malware authors start using it to snare unwary users. Read on to learn how those funny black squares can carry a nasty (and expensive) payload&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>QR Code Malware<\/strong><br \/>\nQR codes are squares of black and white patterns that encode the URLs of Web sites in a format that can be scanned and deciphered by smartphones equipped with the right apps. Instead of typing a URL into your phone&#8217;s browser, you can just snap a picture of a QR code and be whisked to an ad, an informative Web page&#8230; or a malicious site that silently downloads a virus, rootkit, or trojan to your phone.<\/p>\n<p>Kasperky Labs has detected two samples of malware delivered via QR codes, both targeting Android phones. One of them sends SMS messages from the infected phone to a premium-priced number; each text message costs the victim six dollars! Other types of malware can scoop up your contacts list, send spam emails in your name, and wreak other sorts of mischief.<\/p>\n<p>Can a QR code itself contain malware? Theoretically, yes, but it wouldn&#8217;t do much. A QR code can contain only a limited amount of data: 7089 numeric characters or 4296 alphanumeric characters. You can&#8217;t write much of a program in that space. But a QR code can easily take you to a malicious site.<\/p>\n<h3><b><a href=\"http:\/\/askbobrankin.com\/can_qr_codes_spread_computer_viruses.html?pcp\"_blank\">Article continued here:<\/a><\/b><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/techtalk.pcpitstop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/qr_malware.jpg\" alt=\"can qr codes spread computer viruses\" title=\"can qr codes spread computer viruses\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-33418\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Any doubts I may have had about the viability of QR codes have evaporated. You know a new technology is catching on when malware authors start using it to snare unwary users. Read on to learn how those funny black squares can carry a nasty (and expensive) payload&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":66012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[4166,56,4165],"class_list":["post-33413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bob-rankin","tag-computer-virus","tag-malware","tag-qr-codes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can QR Codes Spread Computer Viruses?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Any doubts I may have had about the viability of QR codes have evaporated. You know a new technology is catching on when malware authors start using it to snare unwary users. Read on to learn how those funny black squares can carry a nasty (and expensive) payload...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can QR Codes Spread Computer Viruses?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Any doubts I may have had about the viability of QR codes have evaporated. You know a new technology is catching on when malware authors start using it to snare unwary users. Read on to learn how those funny black squares can carry a nasty (and expensive) payload...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PC Matic Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-12T10:09:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pcmatic-fallback.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bob Rankin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bob Rankin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bob Rankin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/14737bf7fced6827446b09e297ea0744\"},\"headline\":\"Bob Rankin: Can QR Codes Spread Computer Viruses?\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-06-12T10:09:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":259,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/pcmatic-fallback.png\",\"keywords\":[\"computer virus\",\"malware\",\"qr codes\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Bob Rankin\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\\\/\",\"name\":\"Can QR Codes Spread Computer Viruses?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/bob-rankin-can-qr-codes-spread-computer-viruses\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/pcmatic-fallback.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-06-12T10:09:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"Any doubts I may have had about the viability of QR codes have evaporated. 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