Now Even Photo CAPTCHAs Have Been Cracked

MoonUnit writes "Technology Review has an interesting article about the way CAPTCHAS are fueling AI research. Following recent news about various textual CAPTCHAs being cracked, the article notes that a researcher at Palo Alto Research Center has now found a way crack photo-based CAPTCHAs too. Most approaches are based on statistical learning, however, so Luis von Ahn (one of the inventors of the CAPTCHA) says it is usually possible to make a CAPTCHA more difficult to break by making a few simple changes."

Comments

Why are all the stories posted by only 4 people

[petes_PoV]

Looking back over the past 18 stories I got on the front page of /. There are only 4 different authors cited. Surely more people in slashdot-land have a handle on newsworthy events.

It it that people just can't be arsed to submit stories, or is there a clique at work here?

Get Over It

[Nom du Keyboard]

What we need for fraud-resistant voting and fraud-resistant registration is a national, if not world-wide identity certificate that we can present at the polling booth or interface with our computers for registrations, age checks, and online purchases. Get over the fact that proving who you are is going to result in the downfall of freedom as you know it and accept the fact that this identity card/document will remain under your personal control on when to present it (when you need to positively identify yourself) and when you don't (sorry Officer, but I left it at home because I'm not required by law to carry it at all times). Do you really want some snot-nosed college kid who hasn't paid a dime of taxes in his entire life undoing your vote and dozens of your neighbor's votes because he registered 73 times and now intends to vote for every one of those registrations -- and thinks he's doing a great thing by it?!

Fair elections is the very foundation of a democratic society and everything that preserve One (Wo)Man One Vote Only(!) is a step in the only right direction. It's a shame that voter ID laws only exist in a couple states and look who cries out against them every time. (Clue: people who benefit by massive voter fraud.)

This can be worked out folks and we'll be better for it, whether in actually fair elections, or the decrease in spam and other crapware that captchas and other methods use to try and authenticate users to prevent. Anonymity in all circumstances Is Not a Right. (Neither is Health Care a "Right" as one candidate has very incorrectly proclaimed. Rights are delinated in the Constitution for the United States, and other governing documents in other countries, and free national Health Care is not on that list.) If you have an over the top determination to preserve your anonymity then there are simply some places you cannot go (e.g. legally cross an international boarder) and some things you cannot do (e.g. fly on an airline these days). Once we get over it and realize that a person needs to be able to prove who they are, and that other people and institutions are not out of line in demanding to know who they're dealing with so that they can make the informed decision on whether or not to continue dealing with that person then a lot of the problems, spam, identity theft, terrorism (which thrives on anonymity) will be much reduced to the full benefit of the majority of us who don't actively profit from preying on our fellow humans.