Over the years, bots have become more sophisticated. On the one hand, bots automate tasks and make processes more efficient and convenient – some chatbots, for example, are even able to converse and solve customers’ issues like real humans.
However, the evolving technology also means bad bots are becoming more dangerous. These days, bots can do serious harm to businesses, as cybercriminals often use them to attack websites, steal data, and even commit crimes.
The evolution of bots
The main goal behind creating bots has always been to design a technology that would mimic the work of humans but do it quickly and more efficiently. To put it simply, a bot is a software program that automates regular or repetitive tasks.
When talking about the earliest cases of this technology, it is essential to mention mathematician Alan Turing, who started testing a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior and created what some believe to be the first bot back in 1950.
Over the years, more scientists explored this technology which led to the development of some of the most well-known bots like:
- ELIZA (1966)
- PARRY (1972)
- Racter (1983)
- ALICE (1995)
- Jabberwacky (2005)
- IBM Watson (2006)
- Siri (2010)
- Google Now (2012)
- Slackbot (2014)
- Amazon Alexa (2015)
- Messenger Bots (2016)
Even though bots are neither inherently good nor bad, these can be called “good bots” that are designed to automate processes or help users complete certain tasks.
Take ELIZA, for example – a natural language processing computer program that is often called the first chatbot.
More chatbots followed: PARRY, ALICE, and Jabberwacky. Then the artificial intelligence-powered assistants came along: IBM Watson, Siri, and Google Now.
In recent years, we've seen the emergence of more personalized companions like the AI Girlfriend, designed to brighten your mood and provide companionship, especially when you’re feeling low. Just as these bots have evolved to assist us in various tasks, the AI Girlfriend aims to offer emotional support and a friendly presence in your life.
The rise of malicious bots
While bots designed to help people are rapidly evolving, the same can be said about bad bots, which are developed to destroy.
Bad bots — also referred to as malware bots — can be used for the following:
- Compromising websites
- Disruption
- Hacking
- Spamming
- Spying
It’s difficult to trace when precisely bad bots came about, but among the first ones to cause trouble is the GTbot or global threat bot, which was first detected in 1998.
GTbot penetrated mIRC or internet relay chat. It was a Trojan that was disguised as a disk cleaner and tricked users into downloading it, only to launch a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack within the IRC.
A year later, the Pretty Park worm also penetrated the IRC to listen in on conversations. By the time the 2000s rolled in, the bad bots had found their way out of the IRC.
Over the years, more criminals have started to use bots as a tool to carry out their malicious activities like extortion and other cybercrime.
These days, malicious bots have become a severe problem for businesses because they interrupt workflows and cause serious destruction that will lead not only to revenue loss but also to reputational damage.
According to Kasada’s 2022 State of Bot Mitigation report, 69% of companies report losing more than 6% of their revenue due to automated account fraud.
Moreover, 62% of the respondents reported spending more than $500,000 to fight bot attacks in the past year.
What are bot attacks?
More often than not, a bot attack consists of automated web requests with the goal of disrupting a website or application and manipulating or defrauding the website owner or the end-users.
Years ago, all bots could do was spam forum websites with fake accounts and messages, which was more of an annoyance.
But today, these bots may contain viruses and other malware designed to compromise and obtain sensitive information from the site or its users.
Cybercriminals use highly sophisticated bots for these attacks, to the point that some defenses can’t even detect them.
According to the previously mentioned Bot Mitigation report, 83% of surveyed companies said the same thing: their security tools have a hard time stopping bots because they have become more sophisticated in recent years.
Types of bot attacks
The scary thing is that bots are just as capable of affecting just one person as a significant organization. All cyber criminals need are just some more advanced tools or devices.
Here are the most common types of bot attacks:
Botkits
A bootkit is a developer tool used to create apps, chatbots, and other custom features of a messaging platform.
It is an open-source tool for developing bots that are generally affordable, making it a popular way for malicious parties to compromise the system of an individual or company.
Even cyber criminals with limited skills can use bot developer kits to create a bot that will attack organizations by spamming, phishing, performing account takeover, deploying distributed denial of service (DDoS), or device bricking.
Botnets
Botnet, short for robot network, refers to a group of internet-connected devices infected with malware controlled by criminals.
It’s like an army of malicious bots – a sophisticated botnet attack would have a central point controlled by the threat actor who has the ability to launch a coordinated attack from millions of devices.
These days, botnets are even sold or rented out on the black market, allowing criminals to quickly carry out their malicious attacks without ever having to set up the network or infect thousands of devices themselves.
How to defend against bot attacks
While there are several ways to protect yourself from bot attacks — each organization is different, so make sure to do your research and find the best option for your company.
1. Monitor site traffic
An increase in site traffic is often a good sign, but not if it’s because of bot activities that increase traffic for a short period, which usually lasts less than a week.
You must keep a close eye on website metrics and ensure they correspond to your marketing efforts and operations.
Did you launch a new product or service? Did you announce a sale? Did one of your videos go viral on social media?
If the answer is yes, then most likely your campaigns were successful, and you successfully increased public interest in your products or services.
If there is no practical reason for the boost in traffic, find out what prompted the spike. Bot activities usually come from a single IP address.
Meanwhile, organic spikes in site activities come from Google searches and paid ads.
Unfortunately, monitoring site traffic is not a preventative measure. Attacks will continue to occur if you don’t put up a defense from the very beginning.
2. VPN
While a virtual private network (VPN) is mostly used to ensure online privacy or to access geo-locked content, it’s also a valuable tool that protects you and your network of devices from bot attacks by cloaking your IP address.
While VPNs offer strong protection and privacy, it's important to remember that no single tool can guard against all threats, especially highly sophisticated botnet attacks such as DDoS, keylogging, and data breaches.
However, using a trusted VPNs significantly reduces your risk and provides a solid foundation for your overall cybersecurity strategy.
3. Bot mitigation solutions
The best defense against sophisticated bot attacks are bot mitigation solutions, which accurately identifies malicious bots long before they can enter a system.
How does a bot mitigation solution protect sites from bot attacks?
- It defends web, mobile, and API channels from DDoS.
- It prevents bots from extracting data from HTML and API, which may result in asset theft and price undercutting.
- It prevents account takeovers where bots commit fraud using system-recognized credentials.
- It bars bots from doing a system takeover where bots identify code weaknesses to make your site vulnerable to attacks.
The rise of malicious automation
In the very beginning, bots were created to save time and effort by automating repetitive tasks.
But as this technology evolved and became more accessible to anyone on the internet, it didn’t take long until criminals began using it for malicious purposes.
Today, bots have become instrumental in cybercrime, causing billions of dollars in damages – some $25.6 billion has been lost due to fraudulent online transactions, according to Kasada.
Around 30% of internet traffic is said to be coming from malicious bots, while 40% of all login attempts across all industries are fake, presumably from cyber criminals looking for system vulnerabilities.
With the rise of malicious bots, it's more important than ever to be proactive about online security. These bots are constantly evolving, so staying on top of your site’s security is a must.
Regularly checking for unusual activity, keeping up with the latest cyber threats, and making sure your security measures are up to date can make a big difference.
It’s not just about one solution—it's about building a strong security mindset and using multiple layers of protection to keep your digital space safe. In this fast-changing world, a little extra vigilance can go a long way.