Bot mitigation
Bot mitigation definition
Bot mitigation is the process of identifying and stopping attacks of bots — unwanted automated programs that can flood various online platforms. Bots perform legitimate or malicious activities, including web scraping, content theft, account takeover, spamming, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
During bot mitigation, human traffic is distinguished from bot traffic, and appropriate actions are taken to prevent or minimize the negative consequences associated with bots. Bot mitigation typically involves applying various detection techniques and countermeasures to protect online systems and users from bot-driven threats.
See also: botnet
Bot mitigation use cases
Bot mitigation is employed in various contexts — usually to protect online platforms, systems, and users from the negative impact of malicious bots.
- Website protection. Websites often face threats from bot activities like web scraping, content theft, and spamming. Bot mitigation prevents these bots from extracting sensitive information, copying content, or flooding websites with spam comments.
- Account security. Bots may attempt to log in to user accounts using stolen usernames and passwords. Bot mitigation detects and blocks these login attempts, safeguarding user accounts.
- E-commerce defense. Bots can significantly hurt an e-business via price scraping, inventory hoarding, and fraudulent transactions.
- Application programming interface (API) protection. APIs are vulnerable to bot-driven attacks such as API scraping, spamming, and data theft.
- Online advertising. Ad fraud is a major concern in digital advertising. Bots can generate fake impressions, clicks, and engagements to defraud advertisers.