Website administrators have been warned to implement additional anti-bot protections, as human-assisted CAPTCHA-breaking functionality now appears on the cyber-underground menu of criminal services. CAPTCHAs are used by website admins to confirm if a user is human, rather than a bot. Commonly, these involve typing a word presented in distorted text or clicking on certain images in a grid. However, the tough puzzles are now being beaten by machine learning, leading to the rise of advanced CAPTCHA challenges. Now, cybercriminals are emerging with options for getting around these too.
The cyber-underground has created services primarily geared towards defeating CAPTCHAs using human solvers. Once bot operators create attack scripts that capture the CAPTCHAs when presented, they can send them to a provider that solves the problem in real-time. The CAPTCHA-breaking service taps a human solver to work out the solution, who subsequently sends the answer back to the automated script to input it into the answer field on the targeted website.
According to Trend Micro’s recent analysis, there’s a market demand for CAPTCHA-solving services, with a recent real-world attack on the Poshmark social marketplace observed. The researchers noted that such services are increasing in popularity, and website administrators should take note to prevent cybercriminals from accessing sensitive data.
Trend Micro’s researchers added that online service operators come up against different problems when automated Web traffic defeats CAPTCHAs, not by using bots, but by using human CAPTCHA solvers. As more people move to platforms, the chances of a cyber breach become higher, and with the threat of bots aimed at cracking CAPTCHAs to access private data and steal sensitive information growing, website and business owners need to protect themselves from these viruses.
CAPTCHA has been designed to protect websites from spam, brute force attacks, or scraping data. The technology is meant to add a layer of security to the website, ensuring that data is kept away from cybercriminals. However, with the rise of innovative technologies, cybercriminals are finding ways to circumvent CAPTCHA security layers. It is vital to keep abreast of the latest threats and implement additional security measures to keep sensitive data safe.
As cybercriminals become more skilled, the need for advanced cybersecurity measures becomes more pressing. Many businesses end up purchasing large-scale cybersecurity systems only after they have fallen victim to attacks. Moving forward, companies must continually update their architectures to stay ahead of threats. Furthermore, with cybersecurity insurance, it is possible to protect against financial losses and the subsequent costs of a cyberattack.
In conclusion, the online world is a dangerous place, and cybercriminals are constantly finding ways to breach security measures. CAPTCHA was considered an essential tool to prevent brute force attacks or scraping data. However, with the rise of human-assisted CAPTCHA-breaking functionality, website admins must implement additional anti-bot protections to prevent cybercrime. Failure to do so may result in a data breach that could be damaging to business continuity and damage the company’s reputation.