What Is CAPTCHA?

This word may not ring a bell, but most know what it is. Those codes you sometimes have to enter before completing something on a certain website. It stands for, Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.

Where do CAPTCHA codes come from?

CAPTCHA is basically used to insure that you are not a robot or computer generated, and you’re accessing something online as a legitimate person. Although they may seem annoying and tedious, you can take some credit for preserving history. These CAPTCHAs actually come from scanned textbooks, newspapers, magazines, and other old text. So if you were wondering why some of the CAPTCHA codes are not legible, this is why, (they really aren’t trying to test your patience).

Auto-digitizing programs or optical character recognition software can sometimes not translate or read scanned material. If scanning programs have trouble deciphering any decade old text, you are now the one to help.

Are CAPTCHAs important?

The goal for a CAPTCHA code is to discourage scammers and hackers from using autofill software unethically and stop them from abusing services online. Scammers and spammers may:

• Use brute-force attack on an individuates digital accounts (trying many passwords with hope of guessing correctly)
• Spam news stories and blogs with comments and web address links
• Copy people’s email addresses from websites to be used for spam attacks
• Sign up for a ton of free email accounts
• Corrupt online polls by repeatedly submitting responses
• Lure people into downloading a virus or spyware by falsely positive feedback

Automated accounts usually come with automated attacks, and if there is nothing blocking these robots from completing any of the tasks above, you could easily be a victim.

Do CAPTCHAs work?

Just as security gets stronger, so do those trying to get around it. CAPTCHA has shown a decrease in automated attacks but was updated by Google and called reCAPTCHA in order to make it even harder to get around. This works the same way as CAPTCHA but provides different “tests” to pass in order to continue on a website. Like checking a box that states you are a human, or a jumbled photo where you must select all the parts that include ‘a street sign’.

Millions of websites use this widget as a security setting today.

Do you need more help or information?

My Computer Works can help you with all your technology related questions.