Bots Make Up 42% of Web Traffic, With Nearly Two-Thirds Being Malicious

Bots constitute 42% of all web traffic, with nearly two-thirds being malicious, according to a new report by Akamai Technologies. The report, titled “Scraping Away Your Bottom Line: How Web Scrapers Impact Ecommerce,” highlights the severe impact of undetected web scraping bots on the ecommerce sector, which relies heavily on revenue-generating web applications. Malicious bots are used for activities such as competitive intelligence, inventory hoarding, and creating imposter sites, negatively affecting both business revenue and customer experience. Despite the lack of laws against scraper bots and their detection challenges due to AI botnets, companies can take steps to mitigate their impact.

Reuben Koh, Akamai’s Director of Security Technology & Strategy, emphasized the difficulty in distinguishing between beneficial and harmful bots and the ineffectiveness of traditional defenses like firewalls against rapidly evolving scraper bots. He urged ecommerce businesses, especially those in the APJ region, to invest in adaptive solutions to combat these threats as they expand and regionalize.

The report also found that AI botnets can discover and scrape unstructured data, enhance decision-making with business intelligence, and facilitate sophisticated phishing campaigns. Bots can also contribute significantly to fraud through new account opening abuse and cause technical issues like website performance degradation and increased computing costs. The report provides mitigation strategies and a case study demonstrating improved website performance once defenses are implemented. This research marks the 10th anniversary of Akamai’s State of the Internet reports, offering expert insights based on data from the Akamai Connected Cloud.