Is it human or computer? Defending e-commerce with Captchas

Author

Pope, Clark ; Kaur, Khushpreet

Author_Institution

DRS-Signal Solutions, Gaithersburg, MD, USA

Volume

7

Issue

2

fYear

2005

Firstpage

43

Lastpage

49

Abstract

A Captcha - a completely automatic public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart - is a test that humans can pass but computer programs cannot; such tests are becoming key to defending e-commerce systems. By using a Captcha, for example, IT systems can permit only real people-rather than a spammer´s script-to create a free e-mail account. This article explains the various types of Captchas and discusses their strengths and weaknesses as a security measure. It also lists sources for more information on the formal research into Captchas.

Keywords

DP management; Turing machines; electronic commerce; security of data; unsolicited e-mail; Baffle Text; Bongo; Captcha; Gimpy; Pessimal Print; Pix; Turing test; e-commerce; security; spam; system administration; system management; Adaptive optics; Automatic testing; Character recognition; Degradation; Electronic commerce; Electronic mail; Humans; Libraries; Optical character recognition software; System testing; Baffle Text; Bongo; Captcha; Gimpy; Pessimal Print; Pix.; Turing test; e-commerce; security; spam; system administration; system management;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

IT Professional

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1520-9202

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MITP.2005.37

Filename

1425425