A bot is a computer that is compromised by an infection with malware, and can be controlled remotely by a cyber criminal. The cybercriminal uses the bot or the zombie machine to launch further attacks, or carry it into a network of managed computers, called a botnet. Nearly half the Internet traffic comes from bots, which are bits of code produced to perform automated tasks. There are good bots such as those which index content for search engines, helping people to find websites in a very easy way. It is the bad bots on websites that are causing havoc. These malicious bots expose data, steal intellectual property, shut down entire websites and take advantage of vulnerability. Bot protection and management are therefore a vital part of the security of modern websites.
Bot management is one function of application security software that decides whether a traffic request comes from a computer or a person, and then prevents or monitors non-human and other suspicious requests. To counter malicious bot attacks, websites and applications need the intelligence and durability of a scalable network. Bot security is therefore an increasing necessity that will help reinforce the defenses of your websites.
Common Types of Malicious Bot Attacks
Some of the can types of bad bot attacks given below can ruin your website and your business:
Denial-of-service
Another typical usage of a bot is this. A denial-of – service attack is designed to breach a network or Internet service provider to interrupt service. The attacker is trying to have as many machines as possible infected just to get a bigger botnet network.
Account takeover
Attackers use bots in this process to brute force, or use compromised credential databases to access client accounts. Such attacks are considered the cause of fraudulent transactions, money transfers, identity theft, and data and intellectual property exfiltration.
Checkout fraud
Sneakerbot is a common checkout fraud bot whose purpose is to buy limited quantities of online products. Because of this, it reduces average purchased numbers, decreases repeat customers and also affects relationships with suppliers.
Spambot
This is a computer that distributes spam-e-mails automatically. Such e-mails are often computer malware or commercials for unknown goods themselves. In general, a spammer buys a botnet from a bot herder to use the infected computers and send out spam e-mails that conceal where the attacks actually originate.
Content scraping
Data scraping bots concentrate on stealing information often used to create phishing pages, to steal copyright materials and intellectual property, as well as providing cheaper prices to rivals. This will result in considerable financial loss, whether from a malicious actor or competitors.
Spyware
Spyware is malware used to collect information from its target. Such details can include everything from credit card and password details to the physical data stored inside the files. A bot herder is going to use those information to sell black market info. When a bot herder has leverage of a corporate network, it can be much more lucrative as they can sell the “rights” to their intellectual property and bank accounts.
Dial-up bots
These bots seek to connect to dial-up modems and then trick them into dialing phone numbers. The effect is at times to tie the line up, ultimately forcing the user to change numbers. In addition, there are times when the effect is to dial into premium phone numbers to accumulate charges on someone else’s bill. Actually this type of attack is less used these days as people move away from dial-up modems to broadband connections.
Click fraud
With this type of attack, a bot herder will be able to sneakily click links to websites and online advertising to boost advertiser numbers and generate more money.
How to protect Websites from Malicious Bots
Blacklisting IP addresses
Blacklisting individual IP addresses or entire IP ranges is known as the most basic way of blocking bad bots from targeting your website. The method will take a great deal of time and effort. Automated bots will be able to simultaneously run through even thousands of IP addresses.
Creating challenges when you get a threatening request
If you receive a potentially threatening submission, set challenges. A few advanced rates of response to the threat are given below:
Monitor
Track the operation of a bad bot while it travels through your website. Understand its procedures and use its actions to strengthen, at the right time, the defensive measures against it. This learned knowledge may also be applied to several other bad bots visiting your website.
CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA tests are capable of quickly and easily eliminating basic, automated bots that are unable to read and provide a correct answer to the question, thus enabling access to human users after completing the test.
Block pages
On top of a very simple CAPTCHA check, block pages have an additional level of protection. You can block access of a visitor to your website by sending them to your protection or support team a short request form. After the request is reviewed and approved, the team allows the visitor access to your website. At the other hand, whether it is marked as malicious or not completely submitted, the team will drop the request entirely.
Drop access
Fully dropping access is the harshest response to threats. This choice does not have any alternative, whether it is a request form to unblock or a CAPTCHA check. The user would need to move on toward finding another website.
Each of those options should be as automated as possible to get the best results. It will help to ensure that bad bots are stopped as soon as possible, and good users will be impeded only briefly when they visit your website. So, as part of your attempt to find out how to block bots from a website, there is always the possibility for you to create, operate and maintain your own bot protection program from scratch. There are also automated solutions out there to ease this situation which can effectively help in bot protection. Fixhackedwebsite provides one such approach through its web security tool called Fixhackedwebsite – a managed security service with a Web Application Firewall (WAF) supplied over a Secure Content Delivery Network ( CDN). This also has a Cyber Security Operation Center (CSOC) staffed by intelligence experts working all year round. Fixhackedwebsite Security Information and Event Management ( SIEM) has the capacity to leverage data from over 85 million endpoints to detect and mitigate threats even before they occur. Fixhackedwebsite can also detect and delete malware, and potentially avoid further malware attacks. Fixhackedwebsite conducts automatic vulnerability scans to provide online merchants, companies and other service providers that manage electronic credit cards with a clear and automated way to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Protection Standard ( PCI DSS).
Fixhackedwebsite WAF can remove bugs in the framework and defend web applications and websites from advanced attacks such as SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting and Denial-of – Service (DDoS ) attacks. This WAF offers robust web security for implementing bot defense measures that will protect both your company and your reputation.
Thus, the Fixhackedwebsite effectively blocks websites from malicious bots and brute force attacks. This also defends account registration forms and login pages from various attack vectors including protection from denial of service operation, web scraping, and intrusion attacks.