ReleaseWire Connect

Silk Road is an online market place, which was operated by Tor hidden service, which allows online users to browse the site anonymously without the threat of online traffic monitoring. It was October of last year when the FBI took down the site, which was considered as a black market and drug bazaar. Most security experts and privacy activists in the US argue on how the FBI was able to determine the geographic location of the Silk Road web servers when those should have been hidden with the use of an anonymity service Tor. However, based on the court documents released from the FBI, the site’s true location was brought about by the site’s login page with an anti-abuse CAPTCHA service that pulled content from the Internet.

With the constantly changing advancement in technology, specifically the technology behind the internetcomes the dilemma in distinguishing human computer-users from that of robots trying to log-in to different sites to send messages and other types of information to any user across the globe. A Turing test had been created to minimize spam messages being sent by robots.

CAPTCHA is the shortened term for a somewhat long type of a challenge-response test used in computers and the internet these days, Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.To define Turing Test more specifically, it is a kind of test which differentiate a machine and a human’s ability from each other. It tests the abilities of a machine to exhibit intelligent behaviour which are equivalent to or distinguishable from humans. CAPTCHA’s are created to avoid spamming machines from posting on websites where they are not solicited.

CAPTCHA had been in existence for more than a decade since the start of the World Wide Web. It is a Turing Test which means Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Basically, CAPTCHA is a kind of a challenge-response test used to determine if the computer’s user is a human being. It also separates and distinguishes a computer user as a human from a machine. CAPTCHA is well-known to protect computer users from spam and any unsolicited messages which detects another computer or machine as the source. It is also used as a protection for a user’s security for forgotten passwords and site logins. However, there are reports wherein these Turing Tests which separates a human from a machine is now also being passed by computers.

reCAPCTHA, a system being used by Google to protect websites from spammers is now claimed to be abused by junk mail procurers.

Yes, it is exasperating to have spammy comments on blogs – is CAPTCHA the best option to avoid these from appearing on someone’s blog? Absolutely NOT! Why? - Because CAPTCHA also reduces the useful comments.

A source from usablyauthentical.blogspot.com in 2012 mentioned that the average person has 7 and 25 accounts they log into everyday. Because of the severity of the lack of trust, companies forced users to authenticate who they are through CAPTCHA.

Trying to decipher or bypass a CAPTCHA can be frustrating sometimes, especially when the characters are too distorted that even a man may find it difficult or next to impossible to comprehend. These instances will make the searchers or visitors leave the site and navigate to another site.