Digital Deception
Washington Post (05/01/08) P. D1; Whoriskey, Peter
Human-mimicking computers are becoming increasingly successful at solving CAPTCHA online tests intended to separate humans from computers. In April, Hotmail CAPTCHAs were broken by a computer. The computer then created numerous free Hotmail email accounts and sent out waves of spam, Websense says. Similar attacks occurred this year at Microsoft's Live Mail and Google's Gmail and Blogger. "What we're noticing over the last year is that these tests meant to tell the difference between a human and a computer are being targeted by more and more malicious groups," says Websense's Stephan Chenette. "And they are getting better at it." Solving CAPTCHAs with computers allows spammers to quickly create new email accounts to send spam, which Ferris Research estimates could cost the U.S. economy $42 billion annually. In addition to computers breaking CAPTCHAs, low-wage workers overseas are being paid to solve them. In fact, Google says it believes humans were involved in solving its CAPTCHAs. Microsoft and other Web companies say they are interested in developing human verification tests that are more difficult for computers to crack, but making the tests harder for a computer could make them harder for humans as well.
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