Why you should never post pictures of your boarding pass online

Here's why you should stop posting photos of your boarding pass on social media. Photo / 123rf

Who among us can say they don't feel the urge to post a status update on social media from the airport, as we board a flight away from all our worries, on a hard earned holiday?

With summer coming, a lot of Kiwis are set to fly away from home for a well-deserved break. Many will be letting their friends on social media know that they're off on holiday and, so, the flood of boarding pass photos will ensue.

If you are ever tempted to post a photo of your boarding pass on social media, stop. Don't do it. Post something else entirely or, better yet, nothing at all.

Whatever you do, do not post an image featuring your boarding pass on social media.

That simple photo, a sign of a wonderful holiday to come, could very well get you in serious danger.

From that photo alone, hackers can extract a number of information about you that is not even just limited to what's printed on the boarding pass.

Among other things, a photo of your boarding pass will show everyone: what airline you booked with, your full name, your flight number (along with where you are flying and when), your booking reference, ticket number and barcode.

Your frequent flyer number alone could be enough for a hacker to jump on the airline website and find all your information saved on there.

Your Passenger Name Record (PNR) is a unique identifier of you as a passenger and contains a number of pieces of information about yourself. Even if the PNR is not spelled out on the boarding pass, it can be accessed via the barcode or QR code.

A number of security experts have shown how easy it is for hackers to extract information from photos of boarding passes yet Instagram, for example, continues to be filled with such images.

The #boardingpass hashtag on Instagram is currently used on 106,734 posts - and counting - and most of those do in fact include photos of people's boarding passes.

Each one of these - and definitely all of them combined - is enough for any hacker to then find additional information about you, including your credit card information and your home address (the same home you've just conveniently let them know was potentially empty since you're flying away).

By sharing your boarding pass on social media, you are potentially exposing yourself to theft (be it identity theft, credit card information theft or even the risk of your home being burgled) or even blackmail.

It is also not enough to cover your name or your flight number with your finger. Plenty of other information is available on the rest of the paper, especially via the barcode.

Whatever you do, if you fly somewhere this summer, find a different way to let your friends know where you're off to.