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Gord Richardson on November 22, 2011

In reply to by anonymous_stub (not verified)

Hi Ken,

Captchas are not about protecting the integrity of a user account but about preventing bots from registering on the Network and posting SPAM such as links to advertising or to malicious or 'immoral' websites. Humans can much more easily decipher distorted characters than any computer program currently available. Theoretically, Captchas ensure only humans can register and post comments.

Anyone can set up a Twitter account so why hack them? My Twitter account was hacked and then followed a litany of Tweets purportedly from me but all featuring links to 'amazing new products'.

Anyone can open an anonymous Hotmail account but ALL users that I know have had their accounts hacked and all their contacts, including me, started getting torrents of SPAM.

Ease of availability of anonymous accounts of all conceivable types is no assurance that existing user accounts won't get hacked. A scenario: a malicious new account with a name you don't recognize SPAMs you. Do you open the email and click links or do you delete it because you don't recognize the sender? Hopefully the latter Ken! If a trusted friend APPEARS to have sent you an email, are you not much more likely to click on links in them, perhaps expecting to see something pertinent to both your interests? That's why user accounts get hacked.

Hope that helped.

Gord

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