Capchas can now be solved by a computer

[colonel_mortis]

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24710209

A US-based start-up claims to have broken security tests used to tell humans and computers apart online.
Vicarious said it had developed technology, based on the human brain, which could solve text-based Captcha tests 90% of the time

In tests, the Recursive Cortical Network software solved 90% of Captcha tests used by Google, Yahoo, PayPal, and Captcha.com, Vicarious said.
Nevertheless, Captcha as a security mechanism was still valid, according to security experts

I don't quite see how a security mechanism that has been found to be solved by a computer 90% of the time (not much worse than humans really) can be described as "still valid" if the software gets out into the wide world, but I guess you have to be really dedicated to make a computer powerful enough to run the software just to crack capchas.

[SMURG]

I've genuinely needed something like this in the past. Some captchas are just impossibru.

[helping]

I've genuinely needed something like this in the past. Some captchas are just impossibru.

Seriously, I've gotten three in a row that I couldn't decipher even using windows magnifier 

[bradscoolio]

Occasionally I get locked out of the forums when I use Tor for it at school because the captchas are impossibru.

[TheBrenz]

I hope this leads to no more captchas.

[chromeboy42]

captchas are stupid, they've been cracked before and this just further proves they are not viable security measures. Plus there are ways to get around captchas without even solving them if you have the know how and time. A friend of mine found a loophole in one and was able to make 1000 gmail accounts in a couple of minutes. Seriously funny and now he can spam whoever he wants.

[martinrox1568]

90% of the time??? More accurate than me. . . .

[IdeaStormer]

Setting up human created questions instead of capchas is 100 times better, especially if its forum theme based questions. Like for LTT ask who is Linus's sidekick or who films, only people that follow will know and be able to get in creating a valid hurdle to even keep noobs out that have no idea what LTT is. Many forums use these specific questions which are only relevant to the forum topic and keep the auto-bots out very well, well some regular updating is needed as some answers can be searched and those who are insistent will find the answer and input it into their auto-bot scripts.

[onionring]

Setting up human created questions instead of capchas is 100 times better, especially if its forum theme based questions. Like for LTT ask who is Linus's sidekick or who films, only people that follow will know and be able to get in creating a valid hurdle to even keep noobs out that have no idea what LTT is. Many forums use these specific questions which are only relevant to the forum topic and keep the auto-bots out very well, well some regular updating is needed as some answers can be searched and those who are insistent will find the answer and input it into their auto-bot scripts.

you can only create so many questions, and doing that cost time,

generating random (almost)unreadable pics is instant and has an infinite number of possibility.

also what kind of question would you make for say a store or bank? who s the manager? no one knows that and if people have to do a research to use your service, they ll simply use somebody's else

[alicskysareblue]

captchas are stupid, they've been cracked before and this just further proves they are not viable security measures. Plus there are ways to get around captchas without even solving them if you have the know how and time. A friend of mine found a loophole in one and was able to make 1000 gmail accounts in a couple of minutes. Seriously funny and now he can spam whoever he wants.

indeed, they are harder for people because you actually have to read what the hell that obscured scribble is 

[Ookami]

Its easier to read capchas when im drunk than im sober...

[MasterJV]

This program is better than me at deciphering them. Some look like the letter were blended together and I can't tell them apart. I would prefer human made questions.

[Yoinkerman]

90% is better than I can do

[James_AJ]

You know what this means - UNLIMITED comments on YouTube without hiring a private investigator to find out what the HECK the capchas are saying!!!

[theroflcopta]

GUYS ALL THIS MEANS IS SOMETHING WORSE THAN CATCHAS WILL COME OUT!

[WanderingFool]

Well the most likely solution will be an introduction of picture capchas (or gif like sequences).   Like have a picture of a duck/with manipulation done to it, it will be easily recognizable by a human, but AI is hard....to be honest an image database might be better than current...you can distort an image quite a bit and we can recognize it and there are millions of samples....for text you have 26 letters and 10 numbers, which makes the problem quite a bit easier to solve.

 

Also from my understanding this doesn't apply to recapchas, but just capchas

[IdeaStormer]

you can only create so many questions, and doing that cost time,

generating random (almost)unreadable pics is instant and has an infinite number of possibility.

also what kind of question would you make for say a store or bank? who s the manager? no one knows that and if people have to do a research to use your service, they ll simply use somebody's else

 

And Capcha's are not costing time? How many re-tries till you count it as a waste of time?

 

Q's for Banks/Stores/Finances, what about those pesky questions you filled out when you setup your account? The best questions they could ask as only you could answer them assuming you picked good answers in the first place. Time for those, zero (at least for me).

[onionring]

And Capcha's are not costing time? How many re-tries till you count it as a waste of time?

Q's for Banks/Stores/Finances, what about those pesky questions you filled out when you setup your account? The best questions they could ask as only you could answer them assuming you picked good answers in the first place. Time for those, zero (at least for me).

i wasn t talking about the user's time, the compagnies do not pay the user's time, they pay the time the programmer spent doing the questions vs 1sec to prog the capchas.

the post was meant to highlight the main advantages of capchaw for business, i m not saying it s the best solution, just it s the easiest/fastest/cheapest to install and why it probably wont go away soon.

on a side note,

most places require a capchas to create an account so how could they ask you your personal questions before you entered them?

[ForsakenLive]

Captchas need to die, they are messy, not pleasant to read, and sometimes difficult.

We need those "smart captchas" that are seen in very few places, like the picture of a house, that says "what is this?" and you type HOUSE.

Or those that show you a kitten, a dog, a bird, and a helicopter, and you click the one that doesn't belong.