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Technology has been revealed as one of the best solutions available to citizens and companies to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. The examples of its benefits are many. From video conferencing applications, such as Zoom, to QR codes which, at the moment, adorn the tables of bars and restaurants throughout Spain as substitutes for the traditional menus. Precisely, the European Commission has proposed today the use of this ‘contactless’ technology (that is, without contact) in the Digital Green Certificate. A kind of passport that will allow the user show if you have been vaccinated against Covid-19, have undergone a PCR test or have overcome the disease.
The certificate, which is expected to be free, will have a QR code, which will be responsible for collecting “the necessary key information, as well as a digital signature to ensure that the certificate is authentic.” Each state will be in charge of developing them and will be available to all citizens for free, both in digital and paper format. However, is there any risk that these codes could be altered for malicious purposes? IT and security experts consulted by ABC highlight that, on paper, solutions of this type are quite robust.
“In principle, a digitally signed QR code is quite safe and difficult to break,” the independent computer scientist Jorge J. Ramos explains to this newspaper. The expert emphasizes that, to be completely sure, it is necessary to have technical information on how, in particular, those used in these documents will be. According to the proposal, QRs will be issued by each country. The European Commission is committed to helping the different states develop the necessary software to verify the codes of each of the passports.
“Normally these codes are signed at the source and the copy to use them remains on the server of the person who makes them available to the user,” says Ramos. This implies that even if a user tried to falsify his code, when reading it, the system would realize that it does not match with the information you have stored. “It is very difficult to forge a key if we do not have access to the lock,” the expert points out.
The security offered by QR codes has motivated them to be used by banks or airlines. However, like everything in life, and more with regard to technology, keep in mind that there are no unbreakable systems. “In the end you can use many layers of security, the more the merrier, but total security never exists”, highlights the expert.
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