Clever spammers (probably Russian chess masters fallen on hard times) have managed to find a way of sending emails from Google Mail addresses. Google employs a CAPTCHA (a Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) to try and prevent spammers from automatically creating millions of accounts.CAPTCHAs are those annoying squiggly bits of writing you have to decipher before submitting forms. Essentially this means that spammers can write scripts that sign up for Google Mail accounts with addresses like BillyMack3920939039@googmail.com. They can then send spam from Google Mail accounts with the luxury of a domain name that most mail servers respect. And what’s more, it’s free and reliable. In Google’s own words, it’s “intuitive, efficient, and useful. And maybe even fun“. Fun for spammers.
I’m sure the chaps at Google will have it covered by the end of the day and it’s nothing more than an unavoidable security breach. It’s not great for Google’s public image but if they can rescue the situation quickly enough they could turn it to their advantage. Effectively showing they are responsive and intelligent enough to overcome the security problem.
While on the subject of CAPTCHAs, take a look at Recaptcha.net - they give you free CAPTCHAs you can use on your web site that allow them to transcribe thousands of books that were published before computers ran our lives. It’s a great idea and a nice way to add some very useful functionality to your blog or web site. It a beautiful example of crowdsourcing at it’s best.
Creds: Bhavic.
No comments yet.
