Date: June 26, 2026

Media Contact:
Director Lee, Yu-Wei
Tel: +886 920-072-628

    Many people traveling abroad or attending concerts enjoy posting pictures of their tickets on social media platforms to share their joy with family and friends,but this seemingly casual action hides a significant risk of personal data leakage.The Administration for Cyber Security, Ministry of Digital Affairs (ACS) that barcodes and QR Codes on flight tickets and concert tickets contain important personal information.While sharing life moments,the public must also pay attention to personal information security.The ACS urges the public to adopt four protective steps to enhance ticket barcode security and reduce the risk of having personal data stolen by malicious actors.

    The ACS suggests four steps to mitigate ticket cybersecurity risks: First,do not share posts containing tickets; Second,if you must share, ensure that the barcode (QR Code/Barcode) is completely obscured beforehand;Third,use physical covering methods;Fourth,completely tear up used flight and concert tickets before disposing of them.

The ACS points out that the "barcode" on a flight ticket may look like ordinary black and white parallel lines,but it actually conceals the passenger's basic name, Passenger Name Record (PNR),departure and destination locations,frequent flyer number,and other flight information.Once malicious actors scan the barcode from a photo posted on a social media platform,they can obtain the passenger's full name spelling and PNR.With these two pieces of personal information, malicious individuals can log into the airline's official website, maliciously alter the passenger's itinerary,or mess with their in-flight meals.In addition to flight tickets,people should also try to avoid sharing concert tickets on social media,because the QR Code on the ticket can be easily screenshotted and stolen by malicious actors. They could then take the place of the original purchaser to enter the concert venue,or even duplicate and resell the ticket at a higher price. When the system eventually traces the ticket back to you as the "original purchaser," you might be mistakenly identified as a ticket "scalper" and consequently become the subject of an investigation.

    The ACS further explains and reminds the public to try to avoid sharing photos of tickets with barcodes.If you truly want to share your joy with friends and family on social media,remember that you must completely cover the barcodes and QR Codes on flight tickets,concert tickets, and other tickets before taking a photo and uploading it.Do not just cover a part or half of it.Because QR codes possess powerful "error correction and decoding capabilities" due to their matrix coding design,a scanner can still restore all the data if the code is only slightly covered.Therefore,it must be completely obscured,for instance, by using physical masking methods such as blocking it with a notebook or covering it with your hand. Additionally,if you use PDF software to add color blocks for masking,please be absolutely sure to save the file as an uneditable image.Otherwise,the color block is merely a movable layer,which malicious individuals can easily move aside to scan and exploit the code.Furthermore,used tickets should also be thoroughly torn up before disposal to prevent malicious actors from picking them up and using them maliciously.

This article was translated by AI