A Novel Approach to Ensure Security and Privacy While Using QR Code Scanning in Business Applications

One of many challenges created by COVID-19 pandemic is to reduce need of contact. Quick Response (QR) codes offered a readily available solution to this challenge with offer to support contact less processes. Wide adaption of smart mobile devices like smart phones and tablets and huge number of mobile applications available in the respective application stores, which support QR code scanning acted as a catalyst in rapid adaption of QR codes to support contact less processes. Support of QR code-based processing rapidly increased during the pandemic, penetrated all processes like sales and marketing, authentication, and digital payments to name some. On one hand, this served the cause in terms of reducing contact, on other hand, factors like rapid adaption and using it in smart mobile devices, which are existing to cater to the larger purpose of human usage, scanning QR codes was not in that list to start with is bringing in the series of security issues which can arise starting from the human factor, software, misuse and hacking factors. This paper focuses on the QR code processes, differences in terms of security while using a smart device for QR codes when compared to the rugged device-based barcode scanners, the kind of security issues such process can encounter while using smart devises for QR code scanning, factors that must be considered by the applications development as well as the consumers of such functionality and the way to ensure security of consumers of such functionality.