Pardon my ignorance but what is QR?
QR stands for Quick Response. It's those square shaped digital patterned markers containing various bits of information that can be decoded. I'm sure someone will post an example of one here shortly.
Surely you know about bar codes, those patterns of vertical lines that usually contained product code identification? QR codes were developed (in Japan actually) to be able to include more information in a more compact space and to be read and decoded quickly.
It’s an image that is functionally similar to a barcode but generally encodes a web URL.
This is an interesting article. One of the reasons I don’t scan these things.
June 2020
“I Don’t Scan QR Codes, And Neither Should You”
“I don’t scan QR codes, and neither should you, especially if you care about cybersecurity.
A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that is readable by a smartphone with a camera or a mobile device with a similar type of visual scanning technology. It allows the encoded image to contain over 4,000 characters in a condensed, machine-readable format and was designed as a rapid method to consume static content based on a specific task. Once a program generates a static QR code (as opposed to a dynamic QR code that can change fields like a URL), that code cannot be modified to perform another function.
Surprisingly, that is not the source of cybersecurity risk, even for dynamic QR codes. The risk is in the content itself that has been generated and potentially displayed for an unsuspecting user to scan. Once they do, it can be the prelude to an attack...”