The gradual rise in malware attacks and the threatened cyber security have made cyberspace a no-go zone. This spike in attacks laid predictable patterns in the past, and therefore, it’s not unprecedented. Among what threatens the prized cyberspace is the sudden influx of botnets that have frequently exposed the pitfalls compromising it.
As the number of malicious bots is becoming more significant by the day, it’s creating a worrying trend that prompts tightening cyber security. Bot mitigation is now becoming a mainstay technique to help tame bot traffic.
Bot mitigation is the process of blocking malicious bot traffic to prevent access to websites and compromising web assets. Web assets comprise all items on a website that produce website traffic to help it rank and appear in the SERPs.
What is a Bot, and What do They do?
A bot is an automated software that’s programmed to perform specific tasks, operating over a network. They operate on instructions that a programmer creates and mandates them to run based on how they want them to – which they constantly do. They typically replace humans by imitating them and doing repetitive tasks faster than humans could.
Bots interact with web pages, scan web content, scrutinize web authenticity, single out attack targets, and interact with users through chats. Chatbots are typical examples, which are automated and interact with users, say, in an ecommerce website any time of day. Bots also help scan web assets and index them for display in search queries by search engine users. But, while developers program bots for the greater good, rogue networks take advantage of unsuspecting users, which flips their intent altogether.
These bots usually operate inside a botnet, a series of interconnected devices infected with malicious software, and are manned remotely without the owners’ consent. They perform malicious acts, including credential stuffing, inventory hoarding, email address harvesting, and content scraping. Sometimes, these malicious bots seep into websites with useful ones, resulting in identity theft and account takeovers against the internet’s code.
What is Bot Mitigation?
Bot mitigation uses secure web development technologies and machine learning to filter out malicious bot traffic and allow useful ones to operate seamlessly. Besides only denying access, Bot mitigation also identifies them by their IP addresses and tracks their sources before putting them in a permanent blocklist.
Usually, Bot mitigation uses various technologies, including user behavioral analytics, bot pattern databases, and web application firewalls that block unwanted activities based on a precise set of rules. This preciseness improves their efficiency in identifying and filtering out disguised malicious bots. In situations where Bot mitigation isn’t as effective, it makes them more porous, and that can potentially cause colossal damages to websites, especially those running crucial operations.
Related: Top Ways To Drive Traffic To A New Website
Approaches That Bot Mitigation Use
Bot mitigation employs three critical approaches to identify and manage malicious bots and barring them from filtering into the web. And since the attackers are more sophisticated today, these identification techniques have also become sharper and more intuitive. The approaches include
The Static Approach
This approach only identifies the bots already known to frequent web spaces and have a clear existing history of attacks. It uses static analysis techniques to single out web requests having a history that relates to malicious bots. Besides, this approach points out questionable header information or metadata that connect with the bad bots and locks them out.
Behavioral Approach
This approach uses patterns of human behavior found in bot manager databases to identify bots and single out those that appear malicious. Each day, Billions of people use the internet and considerable portions use specific search engines. Bot managers, therefore, track behavioral patterns, including mouse movements and clicks, the average time between pages, scrolling behavior, and the keys pressed in a session, among others.
Related: Website Traffic Checkers
Challenge-Based Approach
Since bots only try to emulate human activities on the internet, some executions requiring human understanding can be complex for them. Even if that’s possible, humans still do simple things that bots can’t, which single them out. It’s based on this principle that challenges, including CAPTCHA and running JavaScript, give bots away.
Types of Attacks Bot Mitigation Prevents
Credential Stuffing
Credential stuffing refers to the cunning technique that cybercriminals use to perform automated injections of validated data stolen elsewhere to breach into a system and let them gain complete control. It’s a prevalent form of cybercrime that fraudsters use to gain access into bank accounts and other private accounts, siphoning out money and stealing critical information they can use against the unsuspecting owners. Bot mitigation, therefore, tries to lock out malicious bots used to steal these vital log-in details, keeping everyone safe from credential stuffing.
Related: Best Accessibility Testing Tools For Your Website
Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks (DDoS Attacks)
DDoS attacks are malicious practices that cybercriminals use to disrupt seamless traffic of their target servers or networks by overwhelming them with manipulated internet traffic. These cybercriminals carry out these attacks with networks of interconnected machines, consisting of malware-infected devices – known as botnets. It’s through these botnets that an attacker can remotely operate a website using bots. The attacker, therefore, uses the bots to send requests to the target server’s IP address which resultantly overwhelms it. That’s when Bot mitigation comes in handy to single malicious bots, blocking their entry and allowing the useful ones to operate seamlessly.
Related: Data Security Tips For Businesses
Web Data Scraping
It’s the technique that uses the data generated from a separate program to extract that which exists in a target’s computer program. Scrapping extracts valuable information from a website using an application run by bots in a network of malware-infected botnets. It, therefore, provides the cybercriminals with confidential or premium information that usually doesn’t have access authorization. The scrapper bots are usually versatile, suited to perform specific purposes, including contact, price, and content scraping. Therefore, Bot mitigation software employs its subtle approaches to block access and keep websites safe.
Ad Fraud
Ad fraud seeks to trick advertisers into paying scammers and attackers instead of website owners running ads for fair pay. The attacker usually installs click bots into websites, which drives fake clicks on a botnet, duping advertisers to pay them instead. This technique is so practical because the scammers use malicious bots with a unique IP address, disguising them as legitimate clicks by humans. That way, it diverts the pay-per-click remittances to scammers’ accounts. Bot mitigation, therefore, chirps in to prevent these malicious bots from gaining access to websites.
Bot mitigation also prevents other attacks, including email address harvesting, credit card stuffing, spam content, brute force password cracking, and click fraud.
Related: Ecommerce Security: Threats And Solutions
Conclusion
With cybercrime cases going through the ceiling every day, it’s imperative to keep safe from unrelenting attackers and scammers. It’s therefore essential that you employ bot mitigation to help you lock away malicious bots and prevent your website’s data manipulation or potentially irrecoverable losses.
