Cloudflare aims to save the world of CAPTCHAs

Daniel ZimmermannMay 17, 2021

0 157 1 minute read

American cybersecurity company Cloudflare intends to save the world of the computer test CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) and switch to more convenient methods of verifying the identity of users.

While CAPTCHA enhances the security of online services, the security measure is taking too much time from users, experts say.

It takes the user an average of 32 seconds to complete the CAPTCHA test. There are 4.6 billion Internet users worldwide. Assuming that a person goes through about one CAPTCHA every 10 days, this equates to about 500 wasted human years every day.

It is also assumed that users have the physical and cognitive abilities required to perform tests, which may not be the case. For example, a visual impairment can make it impossible to complete a CAPTCHA task.

People who have seen a fire hydrant in the United States are a minority, as are those who speak English. Taxis are yellow in New York and black in London. Cloudfare experts doubt the work of CAPTCHA tests.

Now Cloudfare has decided to “rid the world of the fire hydrants”, as they are launching an experiment designed to completely eliminate the use of CAPTCHAs.

The idea is quite simple – a person should be able to touch or look at his device in order to prove his humanity without revealing his identity. We start with trusted USB keys (eg YubiKey) that have been around for some time and are increasingly used by phones and computers by default.said Thibault Meunier

To replace the CAPTCHA, Cloudflare has released a cryptographic attestation that requires no more than three clicks. Validation takes only 5 seconds instead of 32 seconds required for a CAPTCHA solution. Cloudflare is going to start with trusted security keys like YubiKey, HyperFIDO, and Thetis FIDO U2F.

Cloudflare switched from reCAPTCHA to hCAPTCHA last year, when Google announced it would charge reCAPTCHA fees. The new CAPTCHA-less authentication system can be tested here.

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