The Digital Forensics and Security Challenge of QR Codes

<p>The disciplines of digital forensics and IT security must adapt to new technologies and methods of interaction with those technologies. New technologies present both challenges and opportunities for providing evidence for digital forensics investigations. These may be in the form of new devices such as smartphones or new methods of sharing information, such as social networks. One such rapidly emerging interaction technology is the use of Quick Response (QR) codes. These offer a physical mechanism for quick access to web sites for advertising and social interaction. This paper argues that the common implementation of QR codes potentially presents security issues which must be considered. It analyzes potential privacy problems with QR codes and studies a range of devices as they may have implications for the process of evidence collection and analysis.