Computer Milk » Networking http://www.computermilk.net Straight from the teats of technology Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:16:55 +0000 en hourly 1 CAPTCHA the moment http://www.computermilk.net/2009/04/19/captcha-the-moment/ http://www.computermilk.net/2009/04/19/captcha-the-moment/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:14:03 +0000 obadiah http://www.computermilk.net/?p=63 Let’s face it, opening your in-box to a hundred unwanted e-mail messages (spam) can ruin your entire day. So, how do you prevent it? Well, you really can’t. But if you have a website with a contact form, you can drastically reduce your spam with the use of a CAPTCHA.

Text based CAPTCHAs are no longer able to fool the bots. How long will it be before they can handle image based CAPTCHA’s as well? And is reducing your spam worth alienating a percentage of your users? The harder it is for a computer to solve, the more inconvenient it becomes for legitimate users. This results in less users. Many have pointed out that using CAPTCHAs to stop spam bots is doomed to fail and that we should use a different approach. Simple questions are often used effectively. Perhaps flash or javascript can help. But are these really solutions or only temporary measures to prolong the inevitable?

It’s like an arms race between spammers and spam blockers. Spammers aren’t just using bots anymore either. The new trend is to buy or outsource a cheap labor force to break CAPTCHAs. These data workers often earn much more solving CAPTCHAs than doing legitimate work.

example of a captcha

The future of this arms race between spammers and spam blockers looks bleak. However, some see a silver lining to the spam problem in that we can harness the spammers to solve important AI (Artificial Intelligence) problems by using specific types of CAPTCHAs. Some of these problems include OCR (Optical Character Regognition), Voice Recognition, etc.

That would be great for AI, but does that mean your inbox will never be free of Wholesale Watches, fake Bank Account updates, Discount Pharmacy, Multiple Orgasms, and Online Diplomas? I hope not.

]]> http://www.computermilk.net/2009/04/19/captcha-the-moment/feed/ 0 How Secure are You? http://www.computermilk.net/2009/03/11/how-secure-are-you/ http://www.computermilk.net/2009/03/11/how-secure-are-you/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:28:08 +0000 obadiah http://www.computermilk.net/?p=55 Have you ever stopped to think, “How Secure am I?” With all the online banking, e-commerce, and social networking going on these days, your private information is at risk of falling into the wrong hands. I think the number is somewhere around 10 million cases of identity theft or identity fraud every year in the U.S. alone.

While recently doing some work for a client who runs a network security business called “Breached Systems,” I was introduced to an end-point security software called Blink.

Blink provides home PC protection plus Internet Security including all-in-one antivirus, antispyware, antiphishing, identity theft protection, plus personal firewalls. Created by eEye digital security and offered as a fully functional (and free) one-year trial. After the first year, they charge $25/year to continue using the product.

I was convinced when a friend downloaded Blink, scanned his hard drive, and found 11 threats including a keystroke logger that his other “security” software had failed to detect.

So, if you’re worried about your security (and you should be), consider taking action before it’s too late.

http://www.eeye.com

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