A lot of people can’t contain their excitement when they are about to fly to a holiday destination. And in that moment of energy, they end up sharing a photo of their boarding pass on social media. The problem is that you are giving access to a lot of information without your knowledge to many people out there. One of them can someday take advantage of this information and you might end up being a victim of cyber-crime or some other unwanted situation.
A boarding pass is something that gives you access to your seat once you have booked your flight ticket. Everyone knows that the barcode on our boarding passes contains information such as passenger name, seat number and date and time of journey. But a lot more personal information that one doesn’t know about can also be accessed through the barcode.
Hackers are always in search of these barcodes to exploit someone financially. The barcode can easily be scanned by through which fraudsters can access your personal details along with bank account details, credit card number and email password.
This not only leads to breach of privacy but also gives access to hackers to blackmail you or target you in other ways to extort money. Something similar happened with the former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott after he posted a picture of his boarding pass on Instagram in March, 2020.
As reported by Conde Nast Traveler, Mark Scrano, an information security manager at the cybersecurity firm Colbat, said, “Using only this image an attacker was able to gain access to the prime minister’s personal details including his phone number and passport [number].”
Although he didn’t use it for any malicious activity and tried to contact Abbott’s team to warn them about it, other hackers might not be so benevolent.
A lot of times, passengers throw their boarding pass here and there, after the completion of their journey. In such cases, if the boarding pass is found by a hacker, they can attempt fraud and money extortions on you easily by accessing your personal and financial details.
Disposing of a boarding pass properly is of utmost importance. One can do so by shredding their boarding pass which leads to the barcode being properly damaged. This makes it impossible for the hackers to scan and access any information that might put you in a tough spot.
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