How Does ‘Captcha’ Work And What Are Its Types

Internet security has become an indispensable element and in part, we have managed to reach a state of some tranquillity by the popular Captcha. This security system that we are going to know in-depth today has been a before and after in the history of the Internet.

Surely many of you still remember those moments when Captcha did not exist and therefore registration systems, among other things, could pose a risk to these websites. As technology has progressed, bots have crept into our lives, causing the need for a security system against robots.

What Is Captcha?

Starting at the beginning let’s talk about the word Captcha and its origin. As on many other occasions, Captcha comes from a series of acronyms in English of which its translation means ” public and automatic Turing Test to distinguish computers from humans, from English”. This means briefly that it is a test to detect who are robots and who is human.

This is a type of security measure known as question-answer authentication. Although as the years go by we can see that they are becoming more complex since bots also evolve.

What Is Captcha Used For?

The utilities of the Captcha are very varied, in general, they protect us on the Internet but they really fulfil functions such as protection against SPAM, improving our security so that no one impersonates us through robots or protects web pages.

With a well-programmed computer, millions of password checks can be made on a web page, which means that just by knowing our email they could obtain more information about us, social networks or impersonate anyone. This was one of the reasons to include Captcha, the security system that robots are not capable of overcoming since to do that they need superior reasoning.

They help the websites themselves to try to avoid attacks that could knock down the website. Accessing too many users repeatedly over a period of time can make some web page not work correctly and thus make it unusable or faulty. Luckily, the hosting has Captcha security systems that allow the captcha to be activated in a specific number of accesses so that they do not achieve their purpose if they are robots.

Different Types Of Captcha

Depending on the moment in which we find ourselves, the use of the Captcha can vary to ensure that in no way the votes manage to impersonate humans. The variety of Captchas that are available is increasingly wide and we will know how they can be.

Captcha With Letters

The most common and simple are those that offer us a series of disorderly letters without following a pattern, which can also be complicated by geometric shapes that make it more difficult for robots to overcome this security.

Captcha Images

Showing us a series of images in some cases we have to identify the buses, for example, an insurmountable tool for bots with which it is possible to prevent them from accessing the user registry en masse or visiting websites to knock them down.

Captcha Accessibility

In addition to these two types of Captcha, there is an alternative to people with vision difficulties, allowing them to have no problem overcoming this barrier.

With audio, we achieve our purpose and just by listening to the lyrics or information about the images we could continue with the registration or access to the website.

Without The Captcha, The Internet Would Be Less Secure

Although on many occasions it may seem somewhat repetitive, the truth is that this security measure is currently the only one that offers us to continue using the Internet without fear of receiving massive attacks. We are facing a free access technology and as repetitive as it may sometimes seem, it is the only solution.

In a few years, perhaps the facial recognition system or the fingerprint reader will make us completely forget the Captcha, but until then this is the most effective solution we can find. Thanks to alleles we can allow children or adults to surf the net without problems, avoiding attacks that perhaps the most advanced in technology or most familiar if we know how to identify.