Claudia Goldin wins Nobel for work on women in the labour market
The Nobel prize in economics was on Monday awarded to American economist Claudia Goldin for her research that has helped understand the role of...
2023-10-09 18:47
Most of Justice Thomas' $267,000 loan for an RV seems to have been forgiven, Senate Democrats say
All or most of a $267,000 loan obtained by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to buy a high-end motorcoach appears to have been forgiven, raising tax and ethics questions
2023-10-26 05:45
Enbridge slumps on surprise $14 billion bid for gas-powered utilities
U.S.-listed shares of Enbridge Inc tumbled nearly 7% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the Canadian pipeline operator
2023-09-06 21:50
Rees-Zammit grabs hat-trick as Wales beat Georgia to top World Cup Pool C
Louis Rees-Zammit scored a second-half hat-trick of tries to help Wales to a 43-19 victory over Georgia in Nantes on Saturday to finish top of Pool...
2023-10-07 23:48
Stubborn Palestine hold Lebanon at bay in World Cup qualifier
Palestine began their quest for a place at the 2026 World Cup with a goalless draw against Lebanon in their Group I World Cup qualifier...
2023-11-17 03:19
Losses stack up for FTC's Khan in US antitrust crackdown
FTC chairman Lina Khan is on a mission to embolden US competition enforcers, but a series of court defeats has sowed doubt that she will put an end to decades...
2023-07-16 12:49
Detroit clerk who locked door before customers were shot will face trial
A Detroit gas station clerk will stand trial for involuntary manslaughter
2023-06-07 02:57
Bots are better than humans at cracking ‘Are you a robot?’ Captcha tests, study finds
Bots are better and significantly faster than humans at cracking Captcha tests, according to a comprehensive new study that inspected the security system deployed in over 100 popular websites. Automated bots pose a significant threat to the internet because they can masquerade as legitimate human users and perform harmful operations like scraping content, creating accounts and posting fake comments or reviews, as well as consuming scarce resources. “If left unchecked, bots can perform these nefarious actions at scale,” warned scientists, including those from the University of California, Irvine. For over two decades, Captchas have been deployed as security checks by websites to block potentially harmful bots by presenting puzzles that are supposed to be straightforward for people to solve – but very difficult for computers. Earlier forms of Captcha, for instance, asked users to transcribe distorted text from an image, but with advances in computer vision and machine learning, bots soon caught up to recognise the text with near perfect accuracy. Engaged in an arms race with bots, Captchas have since evolved into an annoying presence on the internet, becoming increasingly more and more difficult to solve for both bots and humans. However, the new yet-to-be peer-reviewed research, posted in arXiv, finds bots are able to quickly crack Captcha tests with ease, suggesting global effort users put into cracking these puzzles every day may be more trouble than it’s worth. In the study, scientists assessed 200 of the most popular websites and found 120 still used Captcha. They took the help of 1,000 participants online from diverse backgrounds – varying in location, age, sex and educational level – to take 10 captcha tests on these sites and gauge their difficulty levels. Researchers found many bots described in scientific journals could beat humans at these tests in both speed and accuracy. Some captcha tests took human participants between nine and 15 seconds to solve, with an accuracy of about 50 to 84 per cent, while it took the bots less than a second to crack them, with up to near perfection. “The bots’ accuracy ranges from 85-100 per cent, with the majority above 96 per cent. This substantially exceeds the human accuracy range we observed (50-85 per cent),” scientists wrote in the study. They also found that the bots’ solving times are “significantly lower” or nearly the same as humans in almost all cases. Since current Captchas do not meet the required security goal of keeping bots away, researchers have called for better and more dynamic approaches to protect websites. Read More Shock for millions of voters as details exposed in hack – which went undetected for a year AI-driven cyberattack can now steal your passwords with near 100 per cent accuracy, study warns More than a million NHS patients’ details compromised after cyberattack ‘Billions’ of computers potentially affect by huge security vulnerability AI breakthrough could dramatically reduce planes’ global warming impact Earth hit by powerful ‘X-1’ solar flare, after fears of ‘cannibal’ blast
2023-08-10 01:53
In Japan, which bans dual custody, a table tennis star refuses to hand back her son to her ex
Japan’s once beloved table tennis star Ai Fukuhara is at the center of a child custody feud following the break-up of her marriage to a Taiwanese player, who was also a star in the sport in his country
2023-07-27 21:20
AP PHOTOS: In the warming Alps, Austria's melting glaciers are in their final decades
JAMTALFERNER GLACIER, Austria (AP) — High up on an Alpine ridge beneath a ceiling of ice, water drips from above into a cave formed by the slowly shrinking Jamtalferner glacier.
2023-09-23 11:58
Charlie Munger, Who Helped Buffett Build Berkshire, Dies at 99
Charles Munger, the alter ego, sidekick and foil to Warren Buffett for almost 60 years as they transformed
2023-11-29 05:18
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter mark 77th wedding anniversary at home in Plains, Georgia
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are marking their 77th wedding anniversary with a quiet Friday at their south Georgia home, extending their record as the longest-married first couple ever as both face significant health challenges
2023-07-07 12:23
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