The Boston Celtics paid top dollar to acquire Kristaps Porzingis. Now, injury concerns are already creeping in.The Boston Celtics underwent significant offseason changes, primarily with their decision to trade Marcus Smart (and stuff) for Kristaps Porzingis (and stuff). On the surface, that'...

Bots are better and significantly faster than humans at cracking Captcha tests, according to a comprehensive new study that inspected the security system deployed in over 100 popular websites. Automated bots pose a significant threat to the internet because they can masquerade as legitimate human users and perform harmful operations like scraping content, creating accounts and posting fake comments or reviews, as well as consuming scarce resources. “If left unchecked, bots can perform these nefarious actions at scale,” warned scientists, including those from the University of California, Irvine. For over two decades, Captchas have been deployed as security checks by websites to block potentially harmful bots by presenting puzzles that are supposed to be straightforward for people to solve – but very difficult for computers. Earlier forms of Captcha, for instance, asked users to transcribe distorted text from an image, but with advances in computer vision and machine learning, bots soon caught up to recognise the text with near perfect accuracy. Engaged in an arms race with bots, Captchas have since evolved into an annoying presence on the internet, becoming increasingly more and more difficult to solve for both bots and humans. However, the new yet-to-be peer-reviewed research, posted in arXiv, finds bots are able to quickly crack Captcha tests with ease, suggesting global effort users put into cracking these puzzles every day may be more trouble than its worth. In the study, scientists assessed 200 of the most popular websites and found 120 still used Captcha. They took the help of 1,000 participants online from diverse backgrounds – varying in location, age, sex and educational level – to take 10 captcha tests on these sites and gauge their difficulty levels. Researchers found many bots described in scientific journals could beat humans at these tests in both speed and accuracy. Some captcha tests took human participants between nine and 15 seconds to solve, with an accuracy of about 50 to 84 per cent, while it took the bots less than a second to crack them, with up to near perfection. “The bots’ accuracy ranges from 85-100 per cent, with the majority above 96 per cent. This substantially exceeds the human accuracy range we observed (50-85 per cent),” scientists wrote in the study. They also found that the bots’ solving times are “significantly lower” or nearly the same as humans in almost all cases. Since current Captchas do not meet the required security goal of keeping bots away, researchers have called for better and more dynamic approaches to protect websites. Read More Shock for millions of voters as details exposed in hack – which went undetected for a year AI-driven cyberattack can now steal your passwords with near 100 per cent accuracy, study warns More than a million NHS patients’ details compromised after cyberattack Many adults would struggle to understand video-sharing platforms’ rules – Ofcom Now even Zoom tells staff: ‘Come back to the office’ Ozzy Osbourne PlayStation tweet which failed to reveal link to Sony banned

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What the papers say Manchester City and West Ham had come to an agreement in principle on a £85million transfer deal for midfielder Lucas Paqueta before the bid crumbled due to potential betting breaches, the Daily Mail reports. Fulham’s pursuit of Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi has become tougher as the Evening Standard says Everton and Nottingham Forest have joined the race for the 22-year-old. Chelsea have agreed to a £14million deal for New England Revoultion’s 23-year-old goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic, according to the Daily Mail. The same publication says Mason Greenwood is set to look for offers from clubs in Turkey and Italy after he and Manchester United parted ways after an internal investigation. Social media round-up Players to watch Jeremy Doku: Journalist Fabrizio Romano says Manchester City have agreed to personal terms with the Rennes winger, with the French club accepting a deal worth around £51million. Dominic Solanke: Football Insider reports West Ham have entered a bid for the Bournemouth striker worth around £35million. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

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A mother was left fuming after her daughter was rejected for her school choir. Writing on Mumsnet, the mother said the choir was "harsh" and that children should be allowed to participate regardless of their ability. She explained her daughter told her she was "sad about how she is a bad singer and she doesn't want to see her music teacher as she is too embarrassed" after an unsuccessful audition with the choir. "I do think rejecting a year 7 into something they are interested in trying is harsh, especially when it's hard enough for year 7s," she added. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "When kids are all singing in a group they do sound the same anyway! Obviously maybe solos could be kept for the particularly talented but I'm honestly just a bit sad and even annoyed," she said. But responding in the comments, people didn't exactly sympathise with the mother. "Auditions are to pick the best singers," one said. "Sorry but it's a life lesson. She can't be good at everything." Another wrote: "Rejection is a part of life, and it's a very valuable lesson. We can't always get what we want because we want it. "This is when we learn to accept defeat or decide to try again. Your daughter could take vocal lessons or practice on her own until auditions come around again." And a third said: "Of course you can’t be in a choir if you can’t sing." Mumsnet mums can be pretty blunt... Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The workers were stuck for two weeks after a part of a tunnel they were working in collapsed.