Felix and Cleo fight spam

THIS ISN'T FELIX OR CLEO, IT'S BOOTS AGAIN. BUT I BET SHE'D BE HAPPY TO HELP FIGHT SPAM TOO.
Spam is a pain in the neck. I'd say that I don't know how spammers sleep at night, but they probably sleep very nicely once they've banked their big fat paycheck. I still hate them though. But I love the army of geeks out there who are dedicating their careers to thwarting spammers and saving our email inboxes. The latest idea is a fantastic one, involves two stray cats called Felix and Cleo.

The best way to beat spam is to come up with a security type question that a computer can't answer, so that only humans can open free email accounts. Those little 'type these letters exactly as you see them' questions are an attempt to do this. For the record, these are known as a Captcha - Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Anyway. The latest attempt involves a database of 2 million images of random cats and dogs (like Felix and Cleo), many taken from animal adoption websites. You'd have to look at the pictures, identify the type of animal, and only then would you be allowed to sign up for a free email address or comment on a blog.

It's a piece of cake for us to tell the difference between a cat and a dog, but a computer apparently finds it harder. The designers say that this brainwave will work because the size of their image database will render it impossible to make a computer programme sophisticated enough to crack the code. Be that as it may, it will not certainly not render it impossible for people who produce spam to hire some poor chud to sit in a darkened room looking at photos of Chihuahuas and Siameses all day and opening free email accounts. But any attempt to fight spam is a-ok by me and I wish it every success. And I hope spammers burn in hell.

Via BBC News.

Comments

[Snowpup]

Sadly, this will ultimately prove to be futile.

The Spammers latest trick is far more devious than paying some chump to decode the image.

They recently have been setting up web sites offering free wares, such as Software, or Adult Images, and the like, and use them to re-serve the Captcha images to naive surfers, who have to solve them to receive their quarry.

Simple, and sadly, very effective.

[False Data]

I'm beginning to think the right answer to raising costs for spammers might be legal rather than a technical arms race. Shall we cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of litigation?

[Peter McGrath]

Burst into their premises mob-handed, drag them into the streets and thrash them with drain-rods. That's for a first offence.

[dd]

I don't know how spammers sleep at night without feeling the slightest bit of guilt or simpethy.

[K Villa]

Sorry, I can't resist leaving a comment for Boots who bears a striking resemblance to our former office building cat I christened Midnight. They share the same gaze, color of the eyes, elegance (as cats are wont to have). I just missed Midnight as I came upon Boots' photo from a search I did (on Google) about 'shoppers'.

I'd call Midnight (he'd recognize my voice from the corridors or the basement garage) and he'd come over. I just started to miss him.

Best, from Manila-

K