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From: Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: Chinese downloads overloading my website
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2024 04:08:55 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 3/15/2024 3:41 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
> Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
> 
>> On 3/14/2024 9:26 AM, Peter wrote:
>>>
>>>    Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> (Without having seen them...)  Can you create a PNG of a group
>>>> of them arranged in a matrix.  Then, a map that allows clicking
>>>> on any *part* of the composite image to provide a more detailed
>>>> "popup" to inspect?
>>>>
>>>> I.e., each individual image is a trip back to the server to
>>>> fetch that image.  A single composite could reduce that to
>>>> one fetch with other actions conditional on whether or not
>>>> the user wants "more/finer detail"
>>>
>>> All of this "graphical captcha" stuff is easy to hack if somebody is
>>> out to trash *your* site.
>>
>> If you are *targeted*, then all bets are off.  At the end of the
>> day, your adversary could put a REAL HUMAN to the task of hammering
>> away at it.
> 
> You could always have a question which involved correcting the English
> grammar of a sentence, but that might eliminate far more of your
> visitors than you intended.

You have to define your goal with any such mechanism.

If you want to protect content, then encrypt the content;
any downloads just waste the client's bandwidth (but, yours,
as well).

If you want to protect access, then you need a mechanism
that exceeds the abilities of the "current connection"
(e.g., robot, blind scrape, human, etc.) to navigate.

Every mechanism has a cost -- a portion of which you, also, bear.

Remember, a client can always hammer away at the basic page
(ignoring the cached flag) even if he never gets past your
"mechanism(s)" intended to deter him.

[A telemarketer can keep dialing your phone number even
if you NEVER answer his calls!]

Publishing any sort of contact information (email, phone, www,
etc.) INVITES contact.