In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, CAPTCHAs have transitioned from simple tests of humanity to sophisticated challenges that aim to differentiate humans and bots. Presently, CAPTCHAs are a fundamental part of securing the Internet. Unexpectedly, ChatGPT can already solve many real-world CAPTCHAs. Therefore, these AI developments result in an unforeseen problem where AIs are almost indistinguishable from real humans on the Internet. The need for advanced CAPTCHAs that can effectively thwart automated attacks has never been more critical. GotCHA is exploring short games that enhance security and contribute to the overall user experience, turning a traditionally tedious task into an engaging interaction. GotCHA's team includes a former developer from the famous Crash Bandicoot video game and a storyboard artist connected with the popular show Rick & Morty. This talk will highlight the significance of the need for new CAPTCHAs with the latest AI advancements to stay ahead of malicious bots.

Mario Yaksetig is an applied cryptographer who thrives at the intersection of privacy and the intricate world of cryptographic protocols. Mario started his cryptography journey at UMBC under Professor Alan Sherman, notable student of cryptography icon Ron Rivest. He then worked alongside David Chaum, the creator of digital cash, blind signatures, and mix networks. While working with Chaum, Mario has created multiple state-of-the-art cryptographic protocols. Recently, Vitalik Buterin, one of the creators of Ethereum, has cited some of his work on ZK-rollups. Mario's latest paper exposes a sublinear forgeability attack on a post-quantum signature scheme created by Vitalik Buterin. Email: myaksetig@gmail.com

Host: Alan T. Sherman, sherman@umbc.edu, Support for this event was provided in part by the National Science Foundation under SFS grant DGE-1753681.  The UMBC Cyber Defense Lab meets biweekly Fridays 12-1pm.  All meetings are open to the public. Upcoming CDL meetings: March 8, Cyrus Bonyadi, Metametaphysical Ontologies for Consensus; March 29, Maksim Eren, Tensor Decomposition Methods for Cybersecurity; April 12, Anupam Joshi; April 26, Dan Ragsdale, National Cybersecurity Policy; May 10, Enis Golaszewski, Automatically Binding Cryptographic Context to Messages Using Formal Methods