Search
Close this search box.

WP Buffs Blog |

Will Artificial Intelligence Make The WordPress Captcha Obsolete?

will-artificial-intelligence-make-the-wordpress-captcha-obsolete-2

The Captcha.

Many of us use it to protect our WordPress sites.

recaptcha-google

We protect login and registration forms as well as contact forms, reset password forms and comment forms from spam and malicious activity.

We even have the ability to protect our entire WordPress backend panel with Captchas.

wordpress-login-math-captcha

But as Artificial Intelligence evolves, will the almighty Captcha still be a secure solution for stopping brute-force attacks or bots from accessing our WordPress websites?

Our team at WP Buffs helps website owners, agency partners and freelancer partners navigate the latest in WordPress security. Whether you need us to manage 1 website or support 1000 client sites, we’ve got your back.

Artificial Intelligence is Here

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning are quickly becoming central to the future of technology.

But with their growth, we’re also seeing a frightening increase in criminal potential.

stephen-hawking-artifical-intelligence-quote

DeepMind, the Alphabet subsidiary and leader in the AI space, announced recently its program that “mimics any human voice and which sounds more natural than the best existing text-to-speech systems, reducing the gap with human performance by over 50 percent.”

“Imagine receiving a phone call from your aging mother seeking your help because she has forgotten her banking password.

Except it’s not your mother. The voice on the other end of the phone call just sounds deceptively like her.

It is actually a computer-synthesized voice, a tour-de-force of artificial intelligence technology that has been crafted to make it possible for someone to masquerade via the telephone.”

“The thing people don’t get is that cybercrime is becoming automated and it is scaling exponentially.”

– Marc Goodman, law enforcement adviser.

While incredibly innovative, the ability for machines to replicate and even outperform humans means software like the Captcha may quickly become obsolete. The entire point of the system is to add a human element that a computer bot simply can’t hack.

But automated programs are hacking it, and doing so with increasing success. This means some may have to seek out additional WordPress support for hacked websites in the future.

Future generations of these tools are guaranteed to add machine learning capacity that have been spearheaded by artificial intelligence researchers to refine the quality of speech understanding, machine vision, natural language understanding and speech synthesis.

Cybercriminals Have Already Been Experimenting with AI

There are a number of computer security researchers who believe that digital criminals have been utilizing and experimenting with AI technologies for the best part of the last 5 years.

elon-musk-artificial-intelligence-quote

If you don’t change your Captcha for two years, you will be owned by some machine vision algorithm.

– Stefan Savage, computer security researcher.

This can be seen in recent efforts to beat the web’s Captcha system.

Captcha was brought to light in 2003 by Carnegie Mellon University to keep automated computer programs from stealing digital information. Since then, both artificial intelligence researchers (“white hat”) and criminals (“black hat”) have already been using machine vision software to overcome Captchas, so this is far from a new concept.

Surprisingly, one factor that has slowed down the growth of malicious Artificial Intelligence has been the extreme availability of free or low-cost human labor. Some electronic criminals farm out Captcha-breaking schemes to digital sweatshops where humans decode the Captcha puzzles for a small fee.

It seems that free labor is a commodity that pure Artificial Intelligence software won’t have the ability to compete with in the near future.

Other Ways To Secure Your Website Today

Although AI may eventually have the upper hand over Captcha, there are other things you can do to secure your WordPress website.

1. Block Traffic From Certain IP Addresses

Automatically blocking traffic from IP addresses that are attempting to gain access to your WordPress site will help to stop unwanted, potentially malicious visitors.

2. Force Lockout

While AI may soon be able to regularly beat Captchas, it may still take them multiples tries to crack it. Locking out visitors who try and fail to beat the Captcha for an extended period of time will help keep your website safe.

login-lockdown-wordpress-plugin

3. Keep Strong Passwords

It seems only a matter of time before machine learning and Artificial Intelligence have the capacity to regularly overcome Captchas. The most important things you can do today and in the future is to keep strong passwords for everything.

very-strong-wordpress-password

Captchas may be beat in the future, but there’s still a lot of security you can implement on your WordPress site to keep it safe. Be diligent and give yourself the coverage necessary to keep your website happy and healthy!

Want to give your feedback or join the conversation? Add your comments 🐦 on Twitter.

SaveSave

SaveSave

If you enjoyed this article, then you’ll really enjoy the 24/7 WordPress website management and support services WP Buffs’ has to offer! Partner with the team that offers every aspect of premium WordPress support services.

From speed optimization services, to unlimited website edits, security, 24/7 support, or even white-label site management for agencies and freelancers, our expert engineers have your back. Bring us in as part of your team to make your site Bufftastic! Check out our plans

Curious about what we do?

Honed and proven strategies we've used successfully 500+ times to help you sell your first care plans. Action steps you can implement in minutes.

No thanks, I can already sell as many care plans as I want.
How to Sell Your Very First Care Plans Cover

WP Buffs, LLC is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, and we’ll only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide the products and services you requested from us. From time to time, we would like to contact you about our products and services, as well as other content that may be of interest to you. If you consent to us contacting you for this purpose, please enter your name and email address above.

 

You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information on how to unsubscribe, our privacy practices, and how we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, please review our Privacy Policy.

By clicking submit above, you consent to allow WP Buffs, LLC to store and process the personal information submitted above to provide you the content requested.

Finally, an email list that helps make WordPress simple and effective for you.

Speed & security optimization tips and detailed how-to guides with advice you can implement today.

No thanks, I already know everything about WordPress.
Speed checklist eBook cover

WP Buffs, LLC is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, and we’ll only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide the products and services you requested from us. From time to time, we would like to contact you about our products and services, as well as other content that may be of interest to you. If you consent to us contacting you for this purpose, please enter your name and email address above.

 

You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information on how to unsubscribe, our privacy practices, and how we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, please review our Privacy Policy. By clicking submit above, you consent to allow WP Buffs, LLC to store and process the personal information submitted above to provide you the content requested.

Case study eBook cover (Rigorous Digital)
Case study eBook cover (MEP Publishing)
How to Sell Your Very First Care Plans Cover

Finally, get your website 99.9999% secure and loading in under 1 second.

Our free eBooks and easy-to-follow checklists will have your website fully optimized in just a few hours.

No thanks, my website is as fast and secure as I want it.

WP Buffs, LLC is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, and we’ll only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide the products and services you requested from us. From time to time, we would like to contact you about our products and services, as well as other content that may be of interest to you. If you consent to us contacting you for this purpose, please enter your name and email address above.

You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information on how to unsubscribe, our privacy practices, and how we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, please review our Privacy Policy. By clicking submit above, you consent to allow WP Buffs, LLC to store and process the personal information submitted above to provide you the content requested.

How to Sell Your Very First Care Plans Cover

Read about how we increased Rigorous Digital's profit margin by 23% and helped remove all website issues for MEP Publishers and their 3 complex websites.

Case study eBook cover (MEP Publishing)
No thanks, I don't need more profit and I can tackle all my WordPress issues myself.
Case study eBook cover (Rigorous Digital)

WP Buffs, LLC is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, and we’ll only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide the products and services you requested from us. From time to time, we would like to contact you about our products and services, as well as other content that may be of interest to you. If you consent to us contacting you for this purpose, please enter your name and email address above.

 

You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information on how to unsubscribe, our privacy practices, and how we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, please review our Privacy Policy.

By clicking submit above, you consent to allow WP Buffs, LLC to store and process the personal information submitted above to provide you the content requested.