- Recaptcha tests are not particularly effective in blocking security threats and research complaints
- Safety tests also cost millions of hours lost for users
- New “invisible challenges” could be an alternative for companies
There are not many interoperant internet interopeants who do not know Captchas, or the “public Turing test completely automated to distinguish computers and humans” – the commonly used tests giving you access to websites, often in Asking users to “click on the image click with a traffic light” or other.
Well, it turns out that the slight favorite downside of each is not even effective in preventing Bot traffic, as a study entitled “Dazed and Confused: a real Recaptchav2 real -scale user study” has discovered that The tests have lost millions of hours for Internet users – but also generated around 888 billion dollars in cookie data monitoring for Google.
The tests are practically inevitable and so widespread that users spent around 819 million hours to resolve them, despite each test by making researchers on average 3.53 seconds to finish. Robots are increasingly able to solve captors, and tests can become obsolete – here is what we know so far.
A for -profit lucrative farm?
The report notes that there are two common types of testing, Captcha and Recaptcha – the first is the textual challenges where users decipher the jamming characters, and the second is a more advanced approach based on the image that is aspired in The images of Google Street View, and in which users are invited to select the image, including a bicycle, for example.
When Google acquired Recaptcha in 2009, he used technology to improve Google Street View by treating photos of home numbers and traffic signs, and to scan google books.
But the Captchas are no longer suitable for use, or at least, not in the way they were. The development of new AI tools means that Captcha tests can be resolved by bots, which makes them almost entirely obsolete – but only for the ostensible Goal of technology.
In 2010 only, there were automated services that could resolve image labeling challenges with 100%precision, so recaptha tests are inadequate as a security challenge.
What this study reveals is that recaptcha user cookies monitor browsers and browser environments – which can all be used to follow users and for advertising.
The study continues to explain the tests, “would not make sense as a security service, but it would be meaningful since obtaining labeled image data is very precious and is even sold by Google . “
Not only are legitimate challenges below user protection, but researchers have observed false Captcha pages used to spread the malicious software of infostealer, presenting a serious risk of without distrust surfers,
“Given the flagrant vulnerability, the ease of implementing large -scale automation and the use of recapthav2 invasive confidentiality monitoring cookies presents itself as a complete vulnerability disguised as a safety tool,” confirmed the study.
It is not only about lost time, and as for any internet activity, Captchas use energy – 7.5 million kWh, or 7.5 million pounds of CO2, to be precise,
This brings us to the “real objective” of Captcha tests. These tests could carry out huge benefits for Google, which potentially won 8.75 to 32.3 billion USD dollars by each sale of its total set of labeled data;
“The conclusion can be extended that the real objective of recaptchav2 is work to work and monitor cookies for advertising and the profit of data as a security service”.
An “invisible” alternative
It is undeniably important for companies to verify whether users are humans or robots – to protect against ddos attacks, data crampons, scalpeurs, etc. So, if CAPTCHA is not an effective safety measure (and is quite boring for users), then what are the alternatives?
Well for the moment, Captcha is practically inevitable for anyone on the Internet. However, there are alternatives for companies, which can take tests to something more secure and user -friendly.
There are now “invisible challenges” that provide a much more user -friendly safety solution for websites, with improved precision and adaptability. These work using complex algorithms and behavioral analysis to distinguish between humans and bots, all without the need for explicit user interaction.
Although these invisible challenges do not necessarily spend the end of the Captcha need, they can combine with traditional Captcha tests to provide a much more transparent experience while providing more robust security for corporate websites.
To help protect your networks against bot attacks, we have also presented the best firewall software – which will help you by acting as a shield around your network infrastructure, and many will block harmful files before you can install and damage your system.
