The latest report from the cybersecurity firm Imperva warns that, last year, bots were behind 49.6% of all traffic from Internet. The company has been tracking the presence of bots since 2013, and this data is the highest it has recorded since then.
The study, published this April, confirms a trend that worries many Internet experts and lovers. Machines (so to speak) are already responsible for half of the network activity globally, which has a series of consequences for the rest of the human users.
As if it were atmospheric pollution, bots hinder and degrade the quality of content on the Internet. Likewise, they constitute a threat to companies, given their use to attack applications, websites or APIs. These bots that are used for malicious purposes are called ‘bad bots’, and grew up to 32% in 2023, two points above the 30.2% registered in 2022.
The industries most affected by bot attacks, in order of most to least infiltrated, are retail, travel, and financial services. On the other hand, the countries that have registered the most bot traffic are Ireland with 71%, Germany with 67.5% and Mexico with 42.8%.
The study, which can be consulted from this link, was already in the news last year. However, the figure of 49.6% is relevant since it shows, without a doubt, that we share the Internet in a 1-1 relationship with artificial programs.
Spam, a serious problem
Nanhi Singh, general manager of application security at Imperva, said that “bots are one of the most widespread and growing threats facing all industries.”
The manager explains in the following way how bots can worsen the Internet experience for people and companies, presenting problems for security and privacy: “From the simple web scraping until the malicious account takeover, spam and denial of servicebots negatively impact an organization’s results by degrading online services and requiring more investment in infrastructure and customer service,” he said in statements to the media.
“Organizations must proactively address the threat of bad bots as attackers become more acute. Its focus on API-related abuses that can lead to account compromise or data breach,” adds Singh.
They will be more than us
Likewise, the cybersecurity company sees one thing very clear: bots will surpass humans in traffic volume on the Internet in the coming years.
“Automated bots will soon surpass the proportion of Internet traffic coming from humans, changing the way organizations approach building and protecting their websites and applications,” says the manager.
“As more AI-enabled tools are introduced, bots will become ubiquitous. “Organizations must invest in bot management and API security tools to manage the threat of automated and malicious traffic,” the report states.
