The Public Is Advised To Be Careful In Transaction Through The QR Code, Prone To Hacking

JAKARTA - Chairman of Indonesia Cyber Security Forum Ardi Sutedja assessed that payment transactions using QR Codes are prone to hacking by hackers. Therefore, people are advised to be more careful when transacting using a QR Code.

Previously, it was reported that a BCA customer admitted that he lost Rp 68.5 million from his savings account through a QR Code transaction or Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) at BCA mobile banking. In fact, he admitted that he did not use the money.

"No one has ever proven that the use of the QR Code is safe. From the start I said the QR Code has vulnerabilities," Ardi said in his statement, Sunday, November 19.

Ardi said that the efficiency of the QR Code, which is easily copied to cellphones, actually has a dangerous impact on the user.

For example, it's also like a QR Code on Whatsapp which is easy to copy with someone else's cellphone. We can monitor other people's activities through a QR Code. This means that we can adapt it," he said.

Learning from this, Ardi hopes that the banking sector can provide education and literacy to customers, so that this incident does not happen again.

"Banking must (provide) education to its customers. As customers, we must also have a kind of culture to hone sensitivity to these risks," he said.

Abroad, hacking cases using QR Code have also occurred. This crime is known as QRishing. In Singapore, a 60-year-old woman lost US$20,000 after she scanned the QR code at one of the Bubble Tea outlets.

The QR Code is thought to be just a survey, even though there is malware behind the QR code that can control the victim's device and drain the account in it.