Methods and systems for protecting website forms from automated access

• US 8,621,578 B1
• Filed: 12/10/2008
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Defenders of the American Dream LLC
• Original Assignee: Confident Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Whitlock, John, Blomquist, Scott A., Blomquist, Chad, Bong, Koesmanto, Lee, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Barron, Jr., Gilberto
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cribbs, Malcolm
• Application Number:
  US12/332,266
• Time in Patent Office: 1,847 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 726/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/36 by graphic or iconic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2133 Verifying human interaction, e.g., Captcha
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32

Abstract

Systems and methods to tell apart computers and humans using image recognition task having a dynamic graphical arrangement of randomly selected images. The images can be arranged as a grid or matrix for presentation on a device display for authentication of a user as human. The kinds of graphical images can be derived from a selected category for the image recognition task. A series of randomly generated access codes corresponding to the images can be displayed with the images. The user may enter the access codes corresponding to images from the selected category. An authentication server can compare the access code entry to an authentication reference code corresponding to the particular arrangement of images. The selection of images, their arrangement and their corresponding access codes, may dynamically change in between verification sessions.

Claims

1. A method for generating a completely automated test to tell computers and humans apart comprising:

generating a matrix of non-overlapping randomly selected images in response to an access request of a user, the dynamic graphical arrangement comprising one randomly selected image from a selected image category chosen for an image recognition task and at least one image not from the selected image category, wherein each image is associated with a unique randomly generated access code, wherein the image recognition task comprises an instruction to select one image corresponding to the selected image category from the matrix of non-overlapping randomly selected images;

presenting the dynamic graphical arrangement of randomly selected images to the user and communicating the image recognition task to the user;

receiving an input from the user access device at a server system, the input comprising the unique randomly generated access code associated with the one image from the selected category;

the server system comparing the input from the user access device to an authenticating reference code to confirm the user is a human and not a computer; and

wherein the matrix comprises at least one image known to belong to the selected image category, at least one image known to not belong to the selected image category and at least one image suspected to belong to the selected image category and wherein the user is still granted access to the website when the input from the user access device comprises selection of the at least one image known to belong to the selected image category and selection or omission of the at least one image suspected to belong to the selected image category.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving an access request from a user access device before generating the matrix.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the access request comprises an account identifier and an access device identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the plurality of randomly selected images comprises an advertisement.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the advertisement comprises a hyperlink to an advertiser website.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the access codes comprise alphanumeric characters.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the matrix is presented to the user on a Web enabled computer or mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least two of the plurality of images are from the selected image category and wherein the input from the user comprises a first access code associated with a first image from the selected image category and a second access code different from the first access code and associated with a second image from the selected image category.

9. A method for selectively accepting access requests from a client computer connected to a server computer by a network, the method comprising:

receiving an access request from the client computer at an authentication server;

the authentication server generating a matrix of non-overlapping images in response to the access request, wherein the matrix of non-overlapping images comprises at least one randomly selected image from a randomly selected image category chosen for an image recognition task and at least one image not from the randomly selected image category, wherein the image recognition task comprises an instruction to select one image corresponding to the selected image category from the matrix of non-overlapping randomly selected images;

presenting the dynamic graphical arrangement of images on an output device of the client computer;

receiving an input from the client computer at the authentication server, the input comprising a user selection of at least one image;

the authentication server accepting the access request if the user selection of the at least one image corresponds to the image chosen from the selected image category and otherwise denying the access request; and

wherein the matrix comprises at least one image known to belong to the selected image category, at least one image known to not belong to the selected image category and at least one image suspected to belong to the selected image category and wherein the user is still granted access to the website when the input from the user access device comprises selection of the at least one image known to belong to the selected image category and selection or omission of the at least one image suspected to belong to the selected image category.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein selecting the user selection of at least one image comprises pointing at and clicking the image with a cursor.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising randomly assigning a randomly generated access code to each image of the dynamic graphical arrangement and wherein the user selection of at least one image comprises input of at least one of the randomly generated access codes.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the randomly generated access codes comprise alphanumeric characters.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising receiving an access request from an access device before generating the matrix.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the access device comprises a Web enabled computer or mobile device.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the access request comprises a user account identifier.

16. The method of claim 9 wherein at least one of the plurality of images comprises an advertisement.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the advertisement comprises a hyperlink to an advertiser website.