An Internet bot or simply bot, is a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet. There has been an increase in the usage of bots by many website owners. Bots have both their good and bad uses.
Good bots can be used to communicate with users of Internet-based services, via Instant Messaging (IM). The chatbots may allow people to ask questions and give a response. Examples include reporting weather situations, sport scores, currency conversion, etc.
Bad bots can be used to coordinate an automated attack on web servers, spread viruses and worms, cause DDoS attacks, etc.
According to the “Bad Bot Report 2021: The Pandemic of the Internet” published by Imperva, bad bots are the major pandemic ravaging the internet. They interact with applications in the same way a legitimate user would, making them harder to detect and block.
From the report published by Imperva, in 2020, bad bots traffic has maintained its upward trend, amounting to 25.6% of all traffic, which is a new record. Bad bots affect all industries and majority of bad bots originates from:
- USA (40.5%)
- China (5.2%)
- United Kingdom (4.9%)
- Russia (3.9%)
- Japan (3.4%)
- Germany (3.2%)
- Brazil (3.1%)
- Canada (2.5%)
- France (2.3%)
- Ireland (2.2%)
- Other Countries (28.7%)
It appears that on many occasions, bad bots are launched from the same country they are targeting. The United States was the most attacked country by bad bots in 2020, as traffic targeting it amounted to 37.2 percent of all bad bot traffic. China was the second most attacked country, targeted by 8.3 percent of all bad bot traffic.
To fight the increasing menace of bad bots, BizWebShop blocks international traffic on our servers, leaving only the US and Canada open.
