I’ve never been a fan of CAPTCHAs because they essentially punish users for site-owner’s very real problems. Seems they’re becoming even less effective though. Some bots are able to crack a CAPTCHA in less than 60 seconds, so in a sense they are not really effective against the original threat and instead serve as a severe nuisance. Most times they just as easily confuse a human user as a computer, so the test fails their purpose.
The popular CAPTCHA program, which asks the user to type in a series of random characters, is no longer proving as effective as once hoped. Many Web sites have relied on CAPTCHA Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart to ensure that accounts are created by actual human beings.
But criminals have now succeeded in generating profiles with random names, apparently by using automated CAPTCHA breakers. The report notes that some major Web sites are now exploring other ways to block automated accounts, such as using photographic images that a user must analyze.
Report: Spam now 90 percent of all e-mail | Security – CNET News
