What are traffic bots?

Traffic bots are software programs that can carry out automated interactions with websites. They can undertake helpful functions, such as monitoring site performance, or engage in malicious behaviors, like launching cyberattacks. Their ability to mimic real user behavior or perform harmful actions means traffic bots may pose a significant risk to any website.

How do you identify bot traffic?

To detect bot traffic, focus on identifying unusual patterns that deviate from typical human behavior. Automated interactions often involve repetitive actions, rapid navigation, and inconsistent geographic data. Recognizing these anomalies is an essential cybersecurity practice to differentiate bots from real users.

Here's a detailed look at how to identify bot traffic:

• Unusual traffic patterns: Bots often exhibit repetitive behaviors, such as clicking the same links or visiting the same pages in a predictable sequence. This repetition indicates automation, unlike human users, whose browsing tends to vary.

• Rapid page navigation: Automated tools can navigate pages at speeds far exceeding human capabilities. If you notice page clicks or transitions happening unnaturally fast, it's a strong indicator of bot activity.  

• Consistent user agent strings: Bots frequently use the same browser identifier (user agent string) across multiple requests. This uniformity is rare in legitimate traffic, where different browsers and devices naturally generate varied identifiers.

• Geographic inconsistencies: Sometimes, automated scripts pretend to access a site from different locations. Detecting this suspicious distribution of IP addresses can reveal a bot network. 

• Browser fingerprint anomalies: Bots leave digital traces that differ from real users, such as outdated or incomplete browser configurations. Detecting these irregularities helps pinpoint automated browsing.

• Traffic source analysis: Examining referral traffic and entry points can uncover non-human navigation. Patterns such as high traffic from obscure sources or unexpected URLs often signal bot-generated activity.

Good vs. bad traffic bots

Automated programs, or bots, play a significant role in the online ecosystem. Some enhance digital experiences by improving functionality, while others pose serious risks to security and performance. Identifying which bots are beneficial and which are harmful is essential for protecting your business and ensuring a positive user experience.

Here's a closer look at the two categories of traffic bots:

Good traffic bots

"Good bots" serve valuable purposes across the web, performing tasks that improve functionality, maintain systems, and provide valuable services. These bots act as digital assistants, supporting the infrastructure of the Internet. Examples include:

• Search engine crawlers: Index pages to make them available on search engines. 

• Web monitoring bots: Alert administrators to technical issues or downtime.

• Academic and research bots: Collect online data for scientific studies.

• Content aggregation bots: Pull news articles or blog posts together in one place.

• Accessibility bots: Enhance websites to improve usability for individuals with special needs.

• Performance testing bots: Simulate user interactions to assess site performance under load.

• SEO analysis bots: Evaluate websites for factors that influence search engine rankings.

• Translation bots: Make website text available in other languages.

• Archival bots: Save copies of online content for historical purposes.

• Pricing comparison bots: Compare prices and product information from different shopping sites.

• Social media monitoring bots: Track mentions and analytic data across social media apps.

Bad traffic bots

In contrast, "bad bots" are designed to exploit vulnerabilities, disrupt services, and harm digital environments. These malicious bots often operate in ways that damage user experiences, compromise security, or cause financial losses. Examples include:

• Scraping bots: Extract content or data from websites without permission.

• Ad fraud and click fraud bots: Falsify ad views or clicks to earn money by tricking advertisers into thinking people are clicking on ads when they're not.

• Vulnerability-scanning bots: Find weak spots to break into computer systems.

• Spam bots: Flood emails and websites with annoying messages and ads.

• Credential harvesting bots: Steal usernames and passwords by mimicking login pages.

• DDoS attack bots: Flood websites with junk traffic.

• Scalping bots: Purchase limited items like tickets or products for ultimate resale at elevated prices.

• Brute force bots: Attempt to crack passwords by repeatedly guessing combinations.

• Cryptomining bots: Hijack devices to mine cryptocurrency without user consent.

7 consequences of malicious bot traffic to your business

Malicious bots present a serious challenge for businesses, causing issues that range from financial losses to reputational damage. These automated programs can overload your systems, steal sensitive data, and mislead decision-making processes. Addressing the impact of harmful bot traffic is a time-consuming and costly challenge, but it is fundamental to protecting your business operations. Here are seven key ways malicious bot traffic can harm your business:

1. Financial drain: Money is lost due to fake ad clicks, unnecessary traffic, and increased expenses for security needs. Servers and other equipment needed to handle bot fraud cost more.  

2. Competitive intelligence theft: Bots can steal strategies, plans, secrets, and other private information that helps competitors or attackers.

3. Website performance degradation: Bots overwhelm servers, causing slow load times, crashes, and frustrating user experiences that impact sales. 

4. Security vulnerability expansion: Some bots identify weak spots in your systems, opening the door for more advanced cyberattacks. 

5. Brand reputation damage: Bots impersonate your business or send spam, eroding customer trust and harming your reputation.

6. Compliance and regulatory risks: Bots may expose private customer data, leading to lawsuits and penalties.   

7. Marketing metric distortion: Executives can make bad decisions based on false bot activity when automated scripts artificially increase site traffic and clicks.

How to differentiate between good and bad bots

Although challenging, distinguishing good traffic from bad ensures useful bots continue to benefit your site while harmful ones are blocked, keeping it secure and functional. Here are some ways to differentiate bot traffic:

• Implement advanced bot detection algorithms

Deploy software that uses sophisticated machine learning algorithms to recognize bot patterns and behavior. This method enables the software to detect even highly complex bots employing advanced tactics.

• Create comprehensive bot management policies

Develop detailed rules that specify which bots to allow and which to block. By analyzing bot signatures and behaviors, you can whitelist beneficial bots while preventing harmful ones from accessing your site.

• Use adaptive challenge-response mechanisms

Develop intelligent verification systems that distinguish humans from bots by analyzing user behavior. While bots tend to follow predictable patterns, humans react less uniformly. Adaptive tests evolve over time, making it harder for advanced bots to bypass them.

• Monitor and update bot detection strategies

Continuously evaluate your bot detection methods to ensure they stay effective against evolving threats. Regular updates and adjustments are essential for identifying new tactics used by malicious bots.

• Integrate multiple detection layers

Combine technical analysis, behavioral monitoring, and contextual clues to create a multi-layered approach to bot management. By using multiple detection methods, you improve accuracy and reduce the chances of harmful bots slipping through.

Effective traffic bot management with Fastly solutions

Websites attract both good and bad bots, requiring site owners to stay updated on bot behavior with advanced detection tools that analyze traffic patterns. Effectively managing these automated programs ensures a smooth experience for human visitors while maintaining site integrity. Regularly updating protections helps owners stay in control of this wild digital frontier.

Fastly's Bot Management Solution blocks bad bots but allows good ones, like search engine crawlers, to operate freely. This powerful tool keeps your website safe and offers several benefits and features, including: 

• Accurate traffic classification:  The system identifies and blocks harmful bots at the edge, allowing good ones to pass. 

• Reduced infrastructure load: By filtering out unwanted traffic, your site runs faster and more economically. 

• Improved website performance: Fastly's software manages traffic precisely, so your site has low latency and consistent performance. 

• Fraud and abuse prevention: With anti-bot policies in place, users feel safe, and trust in your site increases. 

• Customizable mitigation rules: Fastly allows you to make unique rules about managing traffic on your site. Having fine-grained control over your security is invaluable when necessary. 

• Instant traffic insights: The system provides live analysis that helps you make accurate decisions.

• Integrated application security: Fastly combines bot management with other advanced protective measures, like the Next-Gen WAF, to comprehensively safeguard all your apps.

• SEO optimization: By allowing SEO bots to operate freely, the system ensures your site earns a good ranking. 

Do you want to keep your platform safe from bot threats but accessible to users and search engines? Request a demo today to see how Fastly provides complete, customized bot management.