‘Hackers could use 'rogue barcodes' to take over your phone’

You’ve probably been told it’s dangerous to open unexpected attachment files in your email - just like you shouldn’t open suspicious packages in your mailbox.

But have you been warned against scanning unknown Quick Response [QR] codes or just taking a picture with your phone? New research suggests that cyberattackers could exploit cameras and sensors in phones and other devices.

Jeremy Straub, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, North Dakota State University explains; For example, when you scan a QR code, your computer or phone processes the data in the code and takes some action - perhaps sending an email or going to a specified URL.

An attacker could find a bug in a code-reader app that allows certain precisely formatted text to be executed instead of just scanned and processed.

Or there could be something designed to harm your phone waiting at the target website.

In order for a device to become infected or compromised, the nefarious party has to figure out some way to get the computer to store or process the malware.

The human at the keyboard has been a common target.

An attacker might send an email telling the user that he or she has won the lottery or is going to be in trouble for not responding to a work supervisor.

In other cases, a virus is designed to be unwittingly triggered by routine software activities.

Researchers at the University of Washington tested another possibility recently, embedding a computer virus in DNA.

The good news is that most computers can’t catch an electronic virus from bad software - called malware embedded in a biological one.

The DNA infection was a test of the concept of attacking a computer equipped to read digital data stored in DNA.