The distorted images websites use for logins, known as captchas, or Completely Automated Public Turing test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart, work by distorting a set of numbers and letters in such a way that only humans would recognize them. For blind Internet users, websites use audible captchas, which do the same thing with sound. For a while, both types effectively prevented spammers from registering Gmail addresses with automated scripts. But Russians looking for a little extra cash — about $3 a day — helped crooks break Google's image captchas earlier this year. Now Wintercore Labs says Google's audio captchas are broken too. IDG reports:

There are repeatable patterns evident in the audio file and by applying a set of complex but straightforward processes, a library can be built of the basic signal for each possible character that can appear in the captcha.

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