One Simple Question To Access A Secure Website; Is it a Cat or a Dog?
At Microsoft's annual research conference Techfest, a new method to help keep internet services secure was unveiled based on images of cats and dogs. A popular method to determine whether a human or automated software is trying to access an internet service in use today is the Captcha, a series of randomly generated letters and numbers that must be reproduced. Since computers can now read Captcha sequences, which often confuse humans, a new security method has been developed by nations around the globe. The new security feature is based on the idea that a human can easily distinguish a dog from a cat, when an image of one is displayed, whereas an automated piece of software can not because of similarities.
By using pictures that humans can easily distinguish, researchers hope to foil computerised efforts to get at valuable web services that perhaps offer e-mail accounts or sell tickets for popular shows. The research plan to use pictures was showcased at Microsoft's annual Techfest - a conference that gives the software giant's researchers chance to publicise what they are working on. Also on show at Techfest were Microsoft's latest efforts to improve the way people search for information that may help the company in its battle with rivals Google and Yahoo.
