Tactics to Overcome Bad Bots in 2024

Overcome-Bad-Bots

Introduction

In recent years, bots have taken over eCommerce traffic, rising from 15% in 2017 to 64% by 2021, with some sites reporting as much as 99.8% bot traffic. Even more concerning, nearly 39% of all internet traffic in 2021 was from malicious bots.  Check here best practices for bot detection in 2024

Hackers increasingly rely on these bad bots, which operate without limits and constantly evolve to cause widespread damage. Acting like stealthy “terminators,” bad bots can disrupt operations on a massive scale. A striking example was the February 2020 DDoS attack on Amazon AWS, reaching 2.3Tbps of traffic. Although AWS limited the damage, the attack highlighted that even the largest platforms are vulnerable. Thankfully, advances in anti-bot technology offer ways to reduce these risks.

The Dangers of Bad Bots

Bad bots can cause significant damage in various ways, from distorting performance data to causing website outages.

  • Skewing Analytics: When bots flood a site, it distorts traffic data, making it difficult to determine where legitimate visitors are coming from. This can lead to poor business decisions based on inaccurate analytics.
  • Application DDoS Attacks: These attacks aim to overwhelm your website with bot requests, causing downtime. This not only damages your reputation but can also result in financial losses, as every minute of downtime is costly.
  • Account Takeovers and Card Skimming: Bots attempt to take over accounts by rapidly testing compromised credentials or stolen credit card information. Once they find a valid account, they can steal funds or perform fraudulent transactions.

Why Are Bad Bots Hard to Defeat?

Bad bots are becoming more advanced and harder to detect. Botnets, which can be rented cheaply, imitate human behavior so well that traditional security measures like CAPTCHA often fail. Differentiating between good and bad bots is also challenging, as some bots are beneficial, requiring advanced detection systems to identify harmful ones.

Overcome Bad Bots

Evaluating Solutions

Traditional methods like CAPTCHA frustrate users and are often ineffective. Newer techniques use JavaScript-based detection, analyzing behaviors like mouse movement and telemetry data to distinguish bots from humans. Suspected bots are usually challenged rather than blocked, with challenges becoming more difficult to bypass over time.

How Bots Are Detected

Fraud detection systems send challenges to incoming requests to determine if they are bots or humans. If a bot fails to complete the challenge, it is flagged. The system may detect missing tokens, indicating the bot could not execute the challenge, or identify non-human behaviors like perfectly straight mouse movements, which are unlike the randomness of human interaction.

The Best Bot Mitigation in 2024

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for bot mitigation. The ideal system depends on factors such as industry, traffic volume, and IT resources. Businesses should work with experts to ensure they are using the most up-to-date and effective solutions for their needs. GlobalDots, for instance, specializes in integrating cutting-edge bot mitigation technologies tailored to different businesses’ requirements.

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