You don’t want to be posting this online.
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“Two-dimensional barcodes and QR codes can hold a great deal of information and the codes printed on airline boarding passes may allow someone to discover more about you, your future travel plans, and your frequent flyer account”.
The scariest part being that no special equipment is needed, only free, basic barcode reading software.
“The next time you’re thinking of throwing away a used boarding pass with a barcode on it, consider tossing the boarding pass into a document shredder instead”, Krebs states.
This information may not sound that exciting.
Security researcher Brian Krebs warned about the boarding pass issue after a longtime reader of the KrebsOnSecurity blog came out with step-by-step details on how he was able to access someone’s personal information using only a Facebook photo of a boarding pass as a starting point.
They can uncover your name, phone number, frequent flier number, and flight information – all of which can be used to access an account and take control of it.
Your full name, arrival and departure airports, the airline you’re flying, flight record finder and even your frequent flyer number are public domain if you go for the cheeky passport wallet pic.
Phone numbers, email address, emergency contacts and billing information were also visible, along with options to change seats and cancel flights.
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“There’s more information on a boarding pass than you can read”, security expert Bruce Schneier told NBC News. Welcome to the fascinating world of big data.
