Securiteam's new terminology for a CAPTCHA!

The author (Gadi Evron) blogs on the Securiteam's website about what he has named to be a 'Reverse CAPTCHA'! The author in this blog states that images used in spam can be called a 'Reverse CAPTCHA'.

There are some problems in using this terminology!

The definition of a CAPTCHA by the CMU team is thus:
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A CAPTCHA is a program that can generate and grade tests that most humans can pass, but current computer programs can't pass.
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Somehow the tests such programs generate has also got the name 'CAPTCHA'. We shall accept such a nomenclature. Thus the distorted letters that we see and try to recognize have also been called CAPTCHAs.

CAPTCHAs are a kind of 'Reverse Turing Tests' (RTT), this is also noted in the Securiteam Blog.

Thus then, is a 'Reverse CAPTCHA' a 'reverse-reverse-Turing test' == 'Turing test'?

Turing Test -> (reversed) --> CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA -> (reversed) --> Turing Tests

No, the author rightly mentions that, his definition of a 'reverse CAPTCHA' is based only on the intent. CAPTCHAs were designed to stop the bad guys and allow the good guys, while image based spam uses the same concept to allow the bad things in.

The reversal in this case is only in the intent. Calling that a 'reverse CAPTCHA' is not the right thing causes it only confuses and muddles up the terminology.

Image based Spam is also an example of a CAPTCHA. Humans can pass it while machines can not. It is just an abuse of the original concept of CAPTCHA.

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