minute read Share this article: Usage is way up, but so are cyberattacks: Mobile phishing, malware, banking heists and more can come from just one wrong scan. The use of mobile quick-response (QR) codes in daily life, for both work and personal use, continues to rise – and yet, most people aren’t aware that these handy mobile shortcuts can open them up to savvy cyberattacks. That’s according to Ivanti, which carried out a survey of 4,157 consumers across China, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. It found that 57 percent of respondents have increased their QR code usage since mid-March 2020, mainly because of the need for touchless transactions in the wake of COVID-19. In all, three-quarters of respondents (77 percent) said they have scanned a QR code before, with 43 percent having scanned a QR code in the past week.