Real Talk: Caught in CAPTCHA Hell

There's always the issue of pressing security. However, recent CAPTCHAs are becoming more annoying than usual. CAPTCHA means Completely Automated Public Turing. I could understand the concern about bots. However, certain CAPTCHAs are getting way too annoying for common people. In fact, it seems certain CAPTCHAs require excellent puzzle-solving skills, such as this...

Science Line

Some CATCHAs are reasonable. Some, however, are pretty unreasonable. Some of them may not even match up with the connection speed. Even worse, the Science Line also says the following:

Why aren’t CAPTCHAs keeping bots out anymore?

Bots have gotten better and better at solving CAPTCHAs over the years, largely due to advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, reported in March that its latest technology successfully tricked a human into filling out a CAPTCHA for it. The bot messaged a person on the freelance labor site TaskRabbit, claiming to be vision impaired and to need help filling out a form. Then, in a sci-fi-esque role reversal, a human completed a CAPTCHA for a bot.

Bots can already solve most forms of CAPTCHAs at higher success rates than people, according to research from Microsoft and others. Users get CAPTCHAs correct 50-85% of the time, while bots get them right 85-100% of the time.

There are even programs that will solve CAPTCHAs for you, which could be welcome news for users tired of proving their humanity time and time again. One of these is NopeCHA, a chrome extension Singh Walia uses. “I don’t even have to run an algorithm or a model,” Singh Walia says. “All you have to do is add the extension and it just automatically solves the CAPTCHA for you.”

But the easy availability of these programs also means that CAPTCHAs are more vulnerable than ever. “There’s no point in displaying such CAPTCHAs anymore,” Singh Walia says.

CNBC also says this about CAPTCHA tools:

How machines are becoming more like humans
As a standalone cybersecurity tool, CAPTCHAs can be unreliable because of their partially behavioral-based approach. In addition to tracking the user’s ability to solve the puzzle at hand, the tools also monitor actions like how fast they move through a webpage or the curvature of the mouse. Machine learning and artificial intelligence have become more humanlike over the last decade, Hassan said, and are in some ways much more capable at solving large-scale puzzles than humans. With extensive memory that allows machines to process several things at once, solving single puzzles like CAPTCHAs can be a quite simple task for bots.
CAPTCHA solving farms have also been used as an inexpensive way to debunk CAPTCHAs. Bots can be programmed to call out to the human solving farm overseas that decipher the CAPTCHA, all in the timespan of a few seconds.
“We shouldn’t be testing our humans; we shouldn’t be treating our humans like they’re the fraudsters,” Hassan told CNBC Senior Washington Correspondent Eamon Javers at the CNBC Work Summit in October. “We should be testing the bots in different ways, and so increasing friction on humans is not the way to go.”
In today’s world, CAPTCHAs used without any additional layers of cybersecurity protection are typically not enough for most enterprises, said Sandy Carielli, a principal analyst for Forrester. However, when used in tandem with other protection measures, CAPTCHAs may be a feasible measure to prevent bot attacks.
“CAPTCHAs on their own are really only part of the story for a lot of sites,” Carielli said. “You can think of CAPTCHAs as one piece of the puzzle in a lot of cases.”
Carielli’s report, “We All Hate CAPTCHAs, Except When We Don’t,” found that 19% of adults in the United States have abandoned online transactions in the past year when they are met with CAPTCHAs.

Basically, there are some practical applications for CAPTCHA, but not every freaking time a transaction is made. There could be facial recogniton or other security measures. CAPTCHA can be useful but it can also be frustrating.

Davide vs. Mahathir: Which Lolo Should Filipinos Take Economic Advice From?

The real issue isn't that something is old or new. Instead, if something old or new still works, or doesn't work! Many modern laws are built on some ancient principles, while adjusting to the current times! The Constitution of Japan is actually older than the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines. However, it's more effective for the reasons that (1) their constitution is silent when it comes to regulating economic activities (ex., protectionist measures), and (2) it's a parliamentary system. Honestly, it's a pretty straightforward constitution compared to ours! As Mahatir Mohamad turned 100 today, I would like to raise up Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr. once again. The problem isn't Davide's age but his unwillingness to embrace change when needed (read here ). This time, it's time to bring up a contrast between wise old people and unwise old people. A young person can be right where the old person is wrong. A young person can be wiser because he or she lea...

Overspending as a Narcotic of the Filipino Masses

Harvard Health Publishing It's almost time for the New Year, right? However, there's the problem that so many Filipinos just refuse to do any financial New Year's resolutions . It's a continued series of broken New Year's resolutions year after year , such as not doing anything about one's financial and economic literacy . Then again, can Filipinos learn financial literacy when the school environment is too theoretical ? As I observe the same cycle in the Philippines, from January to December, it has always been a financial mess for many Filipinos. The problem starts with mishandling money, such as how paychecks are often handled by people . There's always some joy in spending, whether we want to admit it or not We can't deny that if we bought what we want (especially with one's own money), there's some feeling of satisfaction . For example, a person who stops begging from their parents and starts buying what they want, with their money , can ...

Is Christmas Toxic Positivity a Cause or an Effect of the Philippines' Lack of Progress?

Lessandra When it's Christmas, it's so easy to think of the song of the late Andy Williams, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year". The music itself reeks of toxic positivity, whether one likes it or not. It's a shame, really, because December 20 was also the anniversary of Asia's Titanic, the sinking of the Doña Paz ! We live in a society that somehow never learns from its mistakes, like a person who's stuck in gambling debt, is still hoping to get rich gambling . Despite all that, Christmas toxic positivity still abounds in the Philippines. We still have a lot of ongoing bad habits, such as starting Christmas in September and then doing last-minute Christmas shopping during the week of Christmas. That's why every time I drive on the road on Christmas, I tend to shout, "Isn't it any wonder why the Philippines never improves?" The term Noche Buena has evolved over time . For some, it's simply the Christmas dinner. However, so...

Why the Old Chinese Education System in the Philippines Can't Pass the HSK Standard Today

Bahay Tsinoy, museum of Chinese life in the Philippines There are a lot of cavemen-minded people out there. Some would argue that Pinyin is making things too easy, never mind that Mainland China was the first to move to abolish Zhuyin. I was looking at the comments on the Bahay Tsinoy Facebook page, and I was not surprised by them. I try to talk about Pinyin and even ask, "Can you get your business permit with Zhuyin?" I guess I was being too blunt in what I did or not. Those old books above were useless . It's because they required people to learn Chinese first and an overdose of memorization . Memorization helps but without understanding, it doesn't help. Besides, you can't even use those textbooks above to teach Mandarin in the language centers (read why here ). People who graduated from Chinese schools talk about their experiences. Some of them even said, "We just memorized so we don't get whacked at the ruler by the siansi (Hokkien for teacher). Fo...

Why I Don't Intend (or Even Recommend to Anyone) to Invest in Cryptocurrencies

I remembered the time when I started to do some monetary investments (bonds, mutual funds), got scammed by a bad customer who hasn't paid me back until now, and how the journey of personal finance is no easy task. I feel like it's time to talk about another Ponzi scheme called cryptocurrency. First, we need to define it before I will state why I don't even intend to invest in it. Cryptocurrency is defined by Investopedia as follows: A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology—a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation . A clear lack of regulation and extreme volatility make it very dangero...

Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

Search This Blog