Like their father, the Devil, evil people are resourceful opportunists.
If they get hold of your airline boarding pass, they can hack into the pass to obtain your personal information by simply scanning the bar code on the card.
That’s because airlines encode your personal information in your boarding pass. All anyone needs to see this hidden information is a barcode scanner ― the same kind that scans items at the grocery store. Barcode scanners can be easily found on various websites and in app stores, often for free.
While some airlines encode more information than others, below is the personal information that hackers can access:
- Your name and flight details.
- Your airline account number.
- Your email address, phone number and more
Once hackers have your basic information, they can use the information to gather more details about you.
For example, with your frequent flier account number, a scammer can then get “secret question” information like your mother’s maiden name or high school mascot from social media to log into your account. From there, the criminal can wreak havoc by changing or canceling future reservations, stealing frequent flier points and more.
Etay Maor, chief security officer at global threat intelligence firm IntSights, said he’d noticed a troubling trend: Passengers leaving their boarding passes behind on the plane. Maor said: “The problem is, people don’t realize that all your personal information is encoded right there. People should treat their boarding passes the same way they treat their passports. You’d never leave your passport behind. ”
What to do:
- Use a mobile boarding pass. Your safest bet for protecting your sensitive travel information is to avoid paper completely. Opt to receive your boarding pass digitally instead of printing it so no one can see or access the barcode.
- Shred your paper boarding pass. If you must print your boarding pass, keep it secured at all times and don’t leave it out where someone could quickly scan it or snap a quick pic. And definitely don’t forget it in the seatback pocket of the plane. Once you’ve made it home, go ahead and shred it.
- Never post photos of your boarding pass. A quick search of #boardingpass on Instagram will show you thousands of recent posts by users displaying their boarding passes ― many with unobstructed barcodes.
H/t John Molloy
~E
I’m a non-flier,except the occasional Helicopter ride,so this won’t affect me,but its good to know. Probably few fliers think of this,so good on ya for the heads up.
No more flying for me….not in this era. Never liked it but did a lot of it when people were a lot more civilized.
Thank you Dr.E for this most useful and important post.