[real-eyes] Tech News from Good Cheer, the National Deaf Blind magazine
- From: "Reginald George" <sgeorge@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <nut@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2011 11:42:49 -0500
Reg
Smart Software Cracks Sound-based CAPTCHA Security
May 2011
Jacob Aron, technology reporter
Efforts to make the web more accessible have unwittingly made it less
secure, according to computer scientists who have developed software to
crack the audio CAPTCHAs used by websites as part of their sign-up process.
You're probably familiar with traditional CAPTCHAs, the obscured words used
to verify that a new user is a person rather than a bot, but the image-based
security measure is difficult for visually impaired people to use. To help
such users websites also offer audio CAPTCHAs, in which a computerized voice
reads out letters or digits distorted by noise, but their security hadn't
been as extensively studied as the visual versions.
Now, researchers have used software called Decaptcha to crack commercial
audio CAPTCHAs used by eBay, Microsoft, Yahoo and others, with success rates
from 41 to 89 per cent. The system known as reCAPTCHA - developed by the
original inventors of the CAPTCHA and now owned by Google - was more
resilient to attack, with only 1.5 per cent of CAPTCHAs broken. Even such a
low success rate renders audio CAPTCHAs useless, as an attacker in control
of a large botnet of infected computers can easily afford to make 100
attempts for every successfully created account.
Decaptcha uses a number of audio-processing techniques to remove noise and
identify the individual digits in an audio CAPTCHA. The software has to be
trained for 20 minutes on each type of CAPTCHA and can then solve tens of
CAPTCHAs per minute on an ordinary desktop computer.
The researchers say their techniques leave most modern audio CAPTCHAs
unusable, and alternatives must be developed. Decaptcha struggles only with
CAPTCHAs that include semantic noise, which are sounds that share
characteristics with spoken digits such as music or vocal tracks. For
example, reCAPTCHA uses background conversations to obscure the digits,
making it hard for the software to pick them out.
Humans can also find these CAPTCHAs difficult to understand, however, which
means reCAPTCHA has a high failure rate. The researchers suggest using music
rather than vocal tracks could create CAPTCHAs that are still hard for
Decaptcha but easier for humans, because we can tune in to the correct
sounds. They presented their work yesterday at the IEEE Symposium on
Security and Privacy in Oakland, California.
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/05/audio-captchas-cracked.html
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Ticketmaster Makes Website Fully Accessible and Fan-Friendly to Blind Users
SOURCE Live Nation Entertainment
BALTIMORE, April 26, 2011 /PRNewswire
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation's leading advocate
for Internet access by blind Americans, today announced a cooperative
agreement with Ticketmaster, the global event ticketing leader and one of
the world's top five eCommerce sites, to make its website fully accessible
to the blind. Under the agreement, Ticketmaster will make its website
(www.ticketmaster.com) fully accessible to blind users utilizing screen
access technology by December. Screen access technology converts what is on
the computer screen into synthesized speech or Braille.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
"An increasing number of goods and services are now offered primarily over
the Internet and Ticketmaster's extremely popular ticket sales website is a
prime example of this trend. Ticketmaster customers gain many of the
company's valuable benefits and services, including access to special
pre-sales and promotions, through its website. The National Federation of
the Blind is pleased that Ticketmaster has recognized the importance of
providing equal access to its website for its blind customers, and we look
forward to working with the company to achieve that goal. The National
Federation of the Blind will continue to work tirelessly until the blind
have equal access to the full range of products and services available to
the public through the Internet and other information technologies."
"For Ticketmaster, the future is all about the fans. We want to participate
wherever and however so that fans can have the best possible fan-friendly
experience," said Nathan Hubbard, CEO of Ticketmaster. "Partnering with the
National Federation of the Blind is enabling us to address the needs of our
blind fans, so that they can have the same positive experience when
purchasing tickets for their favorite artists' performance or any live
event. We are committed to working with NFB to enhance the Ticketmaster
website so that it's accessible and usable by all of our fans out there."
Pursuant to the agreement, Ticketmaster will develop a comprehensive
accessibility program that will include the development of an accessibility
guidelines manual, as well as the appointment of both an accessibility
coordinator and an accessibility committee.
Additionally, Ticketmaster will continue to work with officials of the
National Federation of the Blind to ensure that the Ticketmaster services
remain accessible to the blind. Ticketmaster will submit its website to the
NFB Nonvisual Accessibility (NFB-NVA) Web Certification program, a rigorous
procedure by which websites and applications that have made efforts to be
accessible to the blind can be identified and recognized. The NFB-NVA Web
Certification program continuously monitors participating sites to ensure
that they remain compliant with certification criteria. If a site remains
accessible, its certification is renewed on an annual or a version basis.
If accessibility issues arise, the National Federation of the Blind will
work with the site developers to remedy them.
-----
Reginald George
Adaptive Technology Specialist
Kansas City Missouri
816-200-1064
adapt@xxxxxxxxx
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