

Some of the most common challenges include: Text-based CAPTCHA Codes Types of CAPTCHAsĬAPTCHA tests can take many different forms. Let’s take a closer look at what such challenges involve. Their pre-programmed nature prevents them from being able to spontaneously react to or reason through the sorts of challenges presented in a CAPTCHA flow. While AI has come a long way, resulting in sophisticated bots that can process complex images and sounds, those crawling the internet with malicious intent generally aren’t built with these abilities. Simply put, bots cannot “think” or “feel” in any human sense. For example, they might be set up to identify common customer questions and provide automated answers in an ecommerce chatbox or to comb the internet for the lowest price on a given product. How does a CAPTCHA work?īots are programmed to carry out specific, repetitive tasks within a narrowly defined scope. They’re designed to elicit the kinds of sensory and cognitive responses that non-human bots could never reproduce. CAPTCHA challenges are based on this work. The “Turing” in CAPTCHA refers to Alan Turing, a renowned computer scientist and mathematician who, among other achievements, devised tests that could differentiate between the behavior of human beings and that of artificial intelligence (AI). It’s a form of challenge-response authentication, where a user must answer a question or solve a puzzle in order to be verified and gain access to an online account.

At the most basic level, a CAPTCHA is a computer-generated security flow meant to distinguish real users from automated web traffic like bots. What is a CAPTCHA?ĬAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. In this guide, we explain exactly what CAPTCHA is, how it works, and how modern authentication providers are adapting the CAPTCHA system to keep up with evolving cyber threats - and stop malevolent bots in their tracks. Specifically, modern CAPTCHAs can help apps and websites tell the difference between the good, human users they want to let in and the bad, non-human users (namely, bots) they want to keep out. How CAPTCHA enables apps and websites to differentiate between human users and automated internet traffic like bots.ĬAPTCHA flows have long provided an essential security tool for developers as they work to protect their platforms and users from cyber attacks.
