Who Needs CAPTCHA?

CAPTCHA, the short form of Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart is essentially a sort of test that recognizes whether the user is a computer or a human being. It comes under the trademark of Carnegie Mellon University. For more information, you can go to http://www.protectwebform.com/.

After a CAPTCHA is installed, when there is an attempted access to the system there is a test given to determine if it is a human or a computer attempting access. Generally, CAPTCHA uses a picture of some distorted letters or numbers and asks for them to be retyped. A person can understand what the distorted letters are supposed to look like, while a computer cannot. Therefore, if the right answer is given, the test determines they are human. It's very easy to use and you can learn more about it at http://www.protectwebform.com/smartcaptcha.

Most website owners opt for a function wherein the visitors can send in their feedback without allowing spammers to barge in. The moment you post your email id on the net, you can rest assured of the attack from the spammers. Automated programs that are better known as bots have the ability to scan your website and parse out your mail id. The spammers use the email ids for many purposes without your knowledge or permission.

If you want to keep bots from getting your information, consider a CAPTCHA. Once you put the CAPTCHA online, as someone wants to sign up to get access to your information they will have to type in the letters that are being shown in a distorted image (i.e. http://www.protectwebform.com/plugin_wordpress). If they can't, CAPTCHA knows they are a computer and will turn them away.

CAPTCHA has become very popular in the past few years because it is a program that can create tests which only humans can clear. Since the program is fully automated there is virtually no chance of any human intervention. No wonder, most website owners go for it.

The key to CAPTCHA is using it to stop spammers before they ever get access to your email. Once they have it, you have lost the game and they will be regularly sending you spam emails you don't want.

CAPTCHAs not only prevent encroachment by spammers for commercial purpose, it also protects the systems that are gullible to spam like, the webmail services of Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo. They also help prevent automated postings on online blogs. There are some services which might allow automated use but within a limit. In such a scenario CAPTCHA helps in enforcing a usage policy and prevents any kind of deviation from the policy.

Attempts to make CAPTCHA handier, like the use of JavaScript, mathematical questions or simple questions requiring common sense answers have failed because either they cannot be automatically created or they can be easily split given the condition of false intelligence. So, the only security these CAPTCHAs provide is safety through obscurity.

Article Source: http://publisherscloninghouse.com

The author, Oleg, is an expert on CAPTCHA design and development. Click to find out more about his new Smart CAPTCHA technology.

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