Nowadays, if you visit most sites, you are typically required to tick a box that states, “I’m not a robot.” This tiny box is usually accompanied by a short test which could be visual or audio, called CAPTCHA. These CAPTCHAS have become inconvenient and time-consuming internet requirements for many users, frequently leaving them wondering how to get past them.
However, CAPTCHA technologies have been an essential and comforting security precaution for the businesses that use them. They make them feel certain that the people visiting their website are legitimate users and not fraudsters. However, there is a drawback – they don’t always work effectively.
Research shows that bots, not actual humans, complete half of all completed CAPTCHAs. This implies that the hackers in control of the bots can abuse the features offered by your website, such as leaving spam comments and submitting fake forms.
Let’s discuss what a CAPTCHA is, the dangers your website may experience if bots bypass it, and what you can do about a CAPTCHA bypass. Let’s get started.
What is a CAPTCHA?
A CAPTCHA is basically an acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. Thanks to the CAPTCHA test, human users can access a website or application, but bots, in most cases, cannot.
Users see graphics in a CAPTCHA test that are unreadable by robots. Only real people can decipher these letters because they are frequently crooked, garbled, or washed out. Images have some form of distortion, making using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) by bots more difficult.
Users must enter what they see into the field provided, and if they respond correctly, access to the website is granted. Simpler bots will click the incorrect images or return erratic and unintelligible messages, indicating they are not human, hence being denied access.
On the other hand, advanced bots can read these warped images and bypass CAPTCHA by using various tactics. Because of this, increasingly complex CAPTCHAs, like Google’s reCAPTCHA, have been created to boost website security.
What happens if hackers bypass your CAPTCHA?
Any independent hacker can bypass CAPTCHA by filling it out like a human would. The risk increases when hackers use bots to get around your CAPTCHA. This implies they may flood your server with queries, drain its resources, or steal your data.
Here are some of the impacts of the CAPTCHA bypass:
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Increased spam
Without a strong CAPTCHA “gatekeeper,” you should anticipate spam comments that promote everything from harmful products or services to other websites. The public won’t see the comments if your website is configured to require approval before they appear, but on the backend, you’ll be flooded with dozens or even hundreds of irrelevant comments.
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Invalid analytics information
Bots will distort website traffic and make your analytics data meaningless. Suppose hackers find a means to circumvent your CAPTCHA. In that case, you can experience a surge in traffic with no conversions or discover that visitors are leaving their carts empty without you being able to determine why.
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Fewer web resources
When given access to your website, bots will swarm it with connection requests and consume its limited resources. This can hurt your business because it means that genuine users will have limited or, in some cases, no access to your website. Remember – if a site takes longer than three seconds to load, 53% of visitors will visit a rival, according to statistics.
What you can do about CAPTCHA bypasses
Here are ways to prevent CAPTCHA bypasses and other malicious bots and malware and improve user experience on your site.
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Use multi-factor authentication
You can use the Multi–factor Authentication (MFA) technique to confirm that only real people are gaining access to your site. For instance, after someone logs into their account, you might send the users a text message containing a one-time passcode they must enter on your website to proceed.
This approach may be helpful in safe settings, such as banking and brokerage accounting software, but it will probably result in excessive user friction for the typical business.
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Use biometrics
You can use biometrics to verify that users are actual people, not robots. You may, for instance, request fingerprint identification from users on cell phones. Other biometrics, such as speech recognition, typing biometrics, and facial recognition, should also be considered.
It’s worth mentioning that biometrics might not be the ideal choice depending on your use case. These systems are also often quite expensive. What’s more, only a few customers (or potential ones) are eager to disclose their biometric information to a business.
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Utilizing a bot mitigation software
You can stop bots in their tracks and stay safe from malware and non-human fraud with the help of bot detection and mitigation software. These solutions have no impact whatsoever on the user experience because they run entirely in the background of your website.
To learn more about how fraudsters use bots to bypass CAPTCHAs and how to stop them, visit this blog by CHEQ.AI.
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