Bots now generate almost half of all Internet traffic. This was reported in the Imperva Bad Bot Report by Thales, UNN reports.
Details
According to the latest report from Imperva, for the first time in history, almost half of all Internet traffic is already generated by bots. In 2023, this figure reached 49.6%, which is 2% higher than in the previous year. This is the highest level reported since Imperva began monitoring automated traffic in 2013.
Bots are one of the most common and growing threats facing every industry. From simply crawling websites to malicious account takeovers, spam, and denial of service, bots negatively impact an organization's bottom line by degrading the quality of online services and requiring additional investments in infrastructure and customer support. Organizations must proactively combat the threat of bad bots as attackers focus on API-related abuses that can lead to account compromise or data theft
For the 5th year in a row, the share of web traffic associated with bad bots increased to 32% in 2023 from 30.2% in 2022. Meanwhile, traffic from human users decreased to 50.4%.
Thus, Imperva's report identifies several key trends.
First, the use of simple bots based on generative artificial intelligence increased to 39.6% in 2023. This was made possible by the rapid adoption of large language models and technologies that allow bots to be trained to perform a variety of tasks, including attacks on websites and applications.
The second key trend is the increase in attacks on user accounts. The number of such attacks increased by 10% year-on-year, with most attempts targeting API endpoints.
In addition, the use of local providers to generate malicious traffic also increased to 25.8%.
The Imperva Bad Bot 2024 report emphasizes the need to strengthen cybersecurity measures and develop new strategies to combat the growth of automated threats on a large scale in the online environment.