New approaches are needed to keep spammers from abusing free e-mails systems now that hey have found ways to circumvent the CAPTCHA test protocol used by many Web sites, according to researchers involved in the effort. Microsoft is one of a number of large companies working on wo research projects aimed at making it harder for spammers to crack CAPTCHA.One
of the well-reported security trends of 2008 was the defeat of CAPTCHA
systems for a number of Web-based e-mail services, including Yahoo and
Gmail.
With spammers increasingly finding their way around these
safeguards, making the hurdles spammers have to jump just a little
higher is an important security concern.
By circumventing CAPTCHA tests, which attempt to keep out automated
responses, spammers can abuse free, Web-based e-mail services to more
easily send out their wares because the reputable domain being used is
less likely to be blocked by a spam filter. According to an
end-of-the-year report by MessageLabs, now a part of Symantec,
the amount of spam coming from Webmail accounts peaked at 25 percent of
all spam in September 2008 and averaged about 12 percent for the rest
of the year.
Click here to read more about the assault on CAPTCHA systems.
Spammers are using a variety of techniques to accomplish this. Some
of their success is due to their use of "mechanical turks," people who
either directly or indirectly create accounts traded online. Other
spammers, however, rely on software to crack CAPTCHA. It is in this
area that CAPTCHA researchers are focused.
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