A brief (5 minute presentation) I gave at the Sydney WordPress meetup on why using standard CAPTCHAs are offloading your security activities onto your users.

1. what NOT to do with
WordPress
Joe Ortenzi
@wheelyweb
typingthevoid.com

2. you start with good stuff
• excellent writing
• great pictures
• cool concepts

3. your awesome theme

4. write great stuff
Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare
sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing
elit. Nullam quis risus eget urna mollis ornare vel eu leo. Donec ullamcorper
nulla non metus auctor fringilla.
Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis dapibus posuere velit aliquet. Cras mattis
consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis
dapibus posuere velit aliquet. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis dapibus
posuere velit aliquet.
Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur et. Duis
mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem
nec elit. Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus. Nulla vitae elit
libero, a pharetra augue.

5. add great features

6. ask people to comment

7. p*ss them off

8. CAPTCHA
• Completely Automated Public Turing Test to
Tell Computers and Humans Apart
• or CAPTTTCHA

9. ‘bots vs humans

10. well, its harder than
that

13. whazzat?

14. omg*
* (recording of unintelligible voice synthesis reading out a large number of texts simultaneously when pressing sound icon)

15. WTF?
you used a CAPTCHA because:
• you want to avoid registrations from ‘bots
• you want to prevent comment spam
• you wan to maintain some security
• you want to annoy your visitors

16. there are alternatives
• text based
• hidden fields
• timing the form

17. text based
• The last letter in “unrolled” is?
• 4 plus two is what?
• Which of 3, twenty-nine, 70, 46 or 65 is the
lowest?
• I have two, you have 2. How many is that?

18. timing the form

19. hiding the field

20. being kind

21. Joe Ortenzi
@wheelyweb
typingthevoid.com