Introduction
QR Codes are quite popular these days. They are used in almost everything. They have the potential to replace the Barcodes. The Barcodes used to have vertical bars which are used to represent the data. But they can only store data in a horizontal manner. So they are limited to some characters. But QR Codes are capable of representing many characters.
Barcodes can represent only 43 characters [ Alphabets, Numbers, symbols (-.,$%*/ and space]
QR codes can represent 7089 characters [ Alphabet, Numbers, Symbols, Binary, Other language symbols
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- In India, due to the emergence of the UPI system for payments, almost everyone uses these QR codes to initiate their transactions.
- These QR Codes are used to share passwords of WiFi if we don't trust the user.
- This is a faster way to authenticate the user, a QR scanner will solve this.
- We can use these even to share the multimedia available on the web with others.
- Some websites use QR code login systems instead of OTPs ( WhatsApp and , Telegram uses this)
QR Code
QR code is known as Quick Response Code and was introduced by Masahiro Hara from the Japanese company which is known as Dense wave in 1994. The QR codes are helpful nowadays, for commercial and convenience-oriented applications and the QR code was named a barcode on steroids.
We can now create a QR code with QR code generators which are available online and offline apps. QR codes generally in their first days of invention are used to track vehicles during manufacturing and allow for high-speed component scanning.
Working of QR Scanner
QR code (Quick responsive code) has three squares, you see the first squares will be big, and these big squares are helpful for when you scan with your mobile. Here it is scanned from top to bottom and left to right, and queued for further processing.
Foremost any QR scanner that scans a QR code will detect the first three big squares. Without these big squares, the QR code is not valid and it will stop data reading and processing.
If you observe closely these big squares again contain other small squares. These small squares are used to read the QR code properly/perfectly even if the paper of the QR code is reversed or folded.
Finally, in middle, the QR code has small lines which will be in a nonsequential manner these nonsequential lines are helpful to read the scan code and it was secured with the code number of the customer and account number.
These QR scanners have advanced data reading in an encrypted manner and the user can access the QR code at any time by scanning.
Types of QR Codes
There are two main types of QR codes.
- Static QR Code
- Dynamic QR Code
Static QR Code
These QR Codes are static, which means they have the same data all the time. This shows the same data to everyone who scans it.
The static QR code will be helpful in small payments like when we pay for vegetables, groceries, pulses, and small shops/stores. By static QR code, we only enter the money and we want to give access to deduct money and send it to the seller in a static way that is fully permission-based.
Dynamic QR Code
The Dynamic QR code is an advanced method which is automatic and non-permissible. An example of a dynamic QR code is when we purchased clothes in a shopping mall, and if we want to pay through UPI then it will automatically generate an amount to the customer of how much he/she has to pay.
The best advantage of the dynamic QR code is capable of knowing who made the transaction and the customer's location details and we can change the address if we need.
But static QR code is not advanced and cannot track location.
QR Codes in our daily life
Nowadays, QR code is also used for wedding invitation card and fee receipts validation and we can also create a QR code for pdf generation and also for movie ticket validation, website access QR codes, Hallticket validation QR codes, and many more.
QR codes are a part of life for many things and many documents were linked to QR codes for security and easy access.
Cyber Threats with QR Codes
- Some fake companies advertise their fake ID showing QR codes. These QRs may redirect the user to third-party sites or applications.
- There is a risk of scanning a QR which takes you to a site infected with malware, which in turn attacks your device.
- Nowadays with the increasing use of UPI, many scammers are sending fake amount requests and forcing users to send money by intimidating them.
- Your device can be hacked if you open random QRs from unknown sources and access the content in them.
Don't click on the unauthorised and unknown QR codes these may lead to cyber-attacks.