It’s the classic pre-trip selfie. You snap a picture of yourself with your passport and boarding pass, then promptly share the photo on social media. Your family, friends and followers may like it.
But cyberhackers love it.
“The risk of being hacked increases drastically when you share too much information about your vacation online,” says Robinson Jardin, head of social media and digital for NordVPN, a cybersecurity software company. “When it comes to boarding passes, the real issue is barcodes. They can be read by pretty much anyone with free software online.”
The vast majority of airline boarding passes now contain barcodes or QR codes. “And on these barcodes, there’s a lot of information that hackers can use,” says Jardin. Along with personal identification and contact details, the code will typically contain your reservation number and frequent flier number. It may even include your passport or driver’s license number. This kind of data can be sold on the dark web and ultimately used to steal the victim’s identity, open credit card accounts or make unauthorized purchases.
For hackers, the very best targets are those who share their digital boarding passes. “It’s even easier to read if it’s a screenshot of the barcode itself,” says Jardin.
Even heads of state can make cybersecurity blunders. In 2020, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was hacked within an hour after posting an Instagram photo of his Qantas boarding pass. In that case, the hacker was benevolent and alerted Abbott of the potential security breach.
There’s also a subset of hackers who are simply mischief-makers, using information to play relatively harmless pranks, says Jardin. “The moment you have this barcode information, you have the person’s last name and reservation number. So you can go on the on the airline website and cancel the return flight or change the return flight.”
But most hackers have nefarious motives, particularly when it comes to frequent flier credentials. “If a hacker can access your mileage points, it can be quite lucrative because the points don’t necessarily have to be used for another flight,” Jardin says, noting that many websites let you trade mileage points for branded gift cards, essentially functioning as laundromats for point thieves. Once those points are removed from your airline frequent flier account and sold, they are virtually impossible to recover.
A common secondary type of attack is executed through social engineering. “The hacker will pretend to be from the airline and either email or call the flyer, perhaps asking for credit card details to confirm the return flight,” Jardin says. “Or the hacker might go in the other direction and call the airline pretending to be the traveler, providing information that was on the barcode of the boarding pass in order to gather even more information on the traveler.”
Nearly 85% of American travelers say they are worried about being hacked while traveling, according to a recent survey from NordVPN, yet many make easy targets. “Most people reuse passwords,” says Jardin. That’s an enormous cybersecurity issue in itself, considering that millions of people have had their information compromised in previous breaches. “Hackers gather names and passwords that have been leaked and can be found online, so they can identify when passwords are being reused.”
Basic cybersecurity hygiene boils down to a few common-sense rules, according to Jardin. “Obviously, the first one is don’t share photos of your barcode,” he says. “But beyond that, don’t share photos of your holiday while you’re still there. Don’t make status updates sharing your location. Instead, wait to share photos until you get back home. People knowing where you’re going, when you’re there, and where you live means that they can break into your house.”
“This is a bit of a dead corner of cybersecurity that people don’t know about,” says Jardin. “It has the potential for doing a lot of damage precisely because it’s not something that people are aware of.”
"Hackers can employ social engineering techniques, pretending to be airline representatives to trick you into revealing more personal data. They can also create targeted phishing attempts using your boarding pass info, leading to clicking on malicious links or sharing sensitive data."
The vast majority of airline boarding passes now contain barcodes or QR codes. “And on these barcodes, there's a lot of information that hackers can use,” says Jardin. Along with personal identification and contact details, the code will typically contain your reservation number and frequent flier number.
Many travelers, excited about the big trip they're taking, will often post photos of their boarding passes to social media as a way to say, “Look, I made it! I'm here!” Except that's not a very good idea. Your boarding pass is a gateway to valuable, personal information that is easily accessible.
Your boarding pass contains a barcode or QR code that has all of your personal information for that flight encoded on it. Anyone with a decoder could use it to access that information. Additionally, that barcode or QR code could contain a six-digit code called a passenger's name record (PNR).
Anyone with access to a scanner can scan your pass and access your travel information and potentially a few digits of the card number you used to book the flight. Some scammers could even use the private information to access your frequent flier account with the airline.
Your boarding pass contains more than just your name and destination. It also holds sensitive information like your booking reference number (PNR), frequent flyer number, and even your home address. Hackers and identity thieves can use this data to steal your personal information and engage in fraudulent activities.
The boarding pass and the QR or 2D bar code printed on it contain sensitive information about the passenger and their journey that could be exploited by data thieves. The codes on the boarding pass contain all flight-related data, such as booking code, passenger name, date, flight number, class of travel and more.
When you're picking vacation photos to post on social media, there are some you should leave out: any shots of your boarding pass. Outside their primary function at the airport, the documents might seem like nothing more than travel scrapbook fodder, but they can reveal a lot more than flyers may think.
Whether you opt for a printed or mobile boarding pass, there's one very important tip you should follow: always take a picture (or screenshot) of your boarding pass (but remember to never share it on social media).
You can use your mobile boarding pass at most airports. Before you leave, check to see if your departure or connecting airports accept mobile boarding passes: Does my airport accept mobile boarding passes? Find your airport, then look under 'Airport details' to see if mobile boarding passes are available.
Once the flight has passed, the boarding card holds no information of value. However, it does contain your name and may also contain your frequent flier number - for someone mining data on you, this is valuable information.
A boarding pass is a document provided by an airline during check-in giving a passenger permission to board the airplane for a particular flight. At a minimum, it identifies the passenger, the flight number, and the date and scheduled time for departure. Boarding passes are always required to board a flight.
Yes, a screenshot of your QR code boarding pass is typically sufficient for airport security and boarding as long as the QR code is clear and unobstructed. It's a good practice to increase your screen brightness when having it scanned.
Best to be safe and securely shred your travel itineraries. Boarding passes also contain more sensitive information than you likely realize. Those QR codes that are on your boarding passes may contain your personally identifiable information.
Those last details are solid gold for an old-fashioned thief who might want to break into your home during your absence. Even a discarded boarding pass can become a handy tool for anyone looking to prise open your airline account and make use of whatever data they can extract.
There are several reasons you might see this on your boarding pass. For example, you may have booked a basic economy fare and don't have a seat assignment (you also might see "seat assigned at gate" when this happens), or the flight could be oversold or you may be required to have your travel documents checked again.
Once scanned, your boarding pass can reveal loads of personal information including full name, email, phone number, flight details, and your airline account number.
For World Duty Free Group it is a legal requirement, specified by HMRC, to ask all passengers to show their boarding passes (stating flight number and destination) when buying all products in our airport stores.
When scanned, these codes can instantly relay your flight details to the scanning device, streamlining the boarding process. This seamless integration of digital technology into the physical act of boarding a plane enhances airlines' operational efficiency and significantly improves the passenger experience.
Introduction: My name is Eusebia Nader, I am a encouraging, brainy, lively, nice, famous, healthy, clever person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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