Those squiggly hieroglyphic puzzles you need to solve to access certain websites or services can be a major nuisance. Thankfully, Google is rolling out a newer CAPTCHA system that should be easier for humans to use - and harder for bots to circumvent. I’m not as smart as a bot. I know this because stories are floating around the blogosphere today about how CAPTCHAs, those annoying word puzzles you have to solve before you’re allowed to do stuff on many websites, are easy to crack. Maybe so. But I can’t crack them. (CAPTCHA, by the way, stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. It was developed at Carnegie Mellon University and acquired by Google in 2009. “Turing test” refers to the standard set in 1950 by British mathematician Alan Turing in 1950: a machine can be deemed intelligent only if its performance is indistinguishable from a person’s.) Countless times I’ve been on the verge of buying a baseball ticket or posting a comment, only to be locked out because I can’t read the strange CAPTCHA hieroglyphics. Thankfully, Google, the keeper of the virtual key that is CAPTCHA, has decided to simplify the system so ordinary humans can crack the code and get to the ball game on time. In a post on Google’s security blog, CAPTCHA product manager Vinay Shet says his team has figured out a way to make the puzzles significantly easier for people to solve, while still filtering out bots. Instead of puzzles made of letters that look like the one below, the new CAPTCHAs will contain a series of numbers that are much easier to read, like the second image below. “Bots, on the other hand, will see CAPTCHAs that are considerably more difficult and designed to stop them from getting through,” writes Shet. The new-style CAPTCHAs are already starting to appear, and you’ll see more in the future as Google continues to roll them out. Sounds good, right? But there’s one the part I don’t understand. Shet says that when the software determines the entity attempting to engage with the protected page is a machine, CAPTCHA serves up a difficult puzzle. If it determines that the entity knocking on the door is a human, it serves a simpler puzzle. That raises an obvious question: If the software already knows a machine is trying to gain access, why bother with a puzzle? I reached out to Google for some insight, and if I hear back, I’ll update this post. Related content brandpost Sponsored by SAP When natural disasters strike Japan, Ōita University’s EDiSON is ready to act With the technology and assistance of SAP and Zynas Corporation, Ōita University built an emergency-response collaboration tool named EDiSON that helps the Japanese island of Kyushu detect and mitigate natural disasters. By Michael Kure, SAP Contributor Dec 07, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by BMC BMC on BMC: How the company enables IT observability with BMC Helix and AIOps The goals: transform an ocean of data and ultimately provide a stellar user experience and maximum value. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 3 mins IT Leadership brandpost Sponsored by BMC The data deluge: The need for IT Operations observability and strategies for achieving it BMC Helix brings thousands of data points together to create a holistic view of the health of a service. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 4 mins IT Leadership how-to How to create an effective business continuity plan A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an By Mary K. Pratt, Ed Tittel, Kim Lindros Dec 07, 2023 11 mins Small and Medium Business IT Skills Backup and Recovery Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe