QUISHING is the newest and most difficult to spot version of phishing - tricking people into disclosing personal and confidential information.  The crime is rocketing, seriously worrying security experts because the crime, which uses fake Quick Response (QR) square barcodes, is often hard to detect. In simple terms, QR codes work by scanning them onto a mobile device, which then takes the user to a website for further interaction. Sometimes, they're used as a second security check when you're trying to sign on.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Simple enough. But what if it's not the website you thought you were going to?  Would you notice if anything does or doesn't look right?  Or how about if  instead of taking you anywhere, scanning the code quickly downloads malware onto your device, installs tracking software, or even steals data without you noticing.  That's exactly what's happening on a frightful scale.  For example, one security firm, Perception Point, reported a massive 423 % rise in the crime between August and September last year.  At the same time, the proportion if quishing among what the firm calls "malicious incidents" rocketed from 0.4% to 8.8% in the same period.  Perception Point also reported that by last September, almost 10% of all QR codes scammed were malicious.  We're talking about hundreds of thousands here.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    In a recent blog, security experts at Keepnet Labs noted:  "The inherent danger with quishing is that, unlike traditional URLs, QR codes cannot be 'read'  or 'previewed' by the human eye.  This obscurity provides an additional layer of deception, making it easier for attackers to trick individuals into scanning malicious codes...  "This inability of the human eye to 'read' QR codes means that we place implicit trust in them, often scanning without a second thought."  The real bad news is that the US is the top user of QR codes, accounting for three-fourths of all global scans, or around 40 million a year. And we create an estimated 300,000 new code boxes a year.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        That also makes us the top target for quishing scammers, with much of the growth down to their use in emails viewed on desktop computers with a request for you to scan them onto your mobile.  And one reason for their success is that people tend to trust them wuthout question.  The codes are also easy to generate.  Plus, of course, there's no easy way to tell the good guys from the bad; they all look very similar.  In fact, a major concern is that they have the potential to evade some security softwware, precisely because they look so normal. The malicious element is hidden in those tiny black dots and squares.