Bot attack on a website: how to identify, signs, methods of protection

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The amount of bot traffic worldwide is catastrophically frightening advertisers, website owners, brands and influencers in social networks.

According to a study by the American company CHEQ, about 40% of traffic is generated by bots. Therefore, the companies' concerns are quite justified. In this article, we will analyze the types of malicious bot attacks on websites, their signs, and options for protecting against them.

Contents
1. How bots attack websites: algorithm
2. 9 Types of Bot Attacks
3. Why is it important to block bots on websites
4. How to recognize a bot attack
4.1. How to Recover a Website After a Bot Attack
5. How to avoid serious damage
6. Protection from bot attacks

How Bots Attack Websites: Algorithm​

Bots are automated programs designed to mimic human behavior online and perform tasks at lightning speed. And when it comes to invalid traffic, it’s important to remember that there are good bots and bad bots.

Useful ones make our lives easier. For example, search engine crawlers index new website pages and add them to search (or don’t add them if some rules are violated). Chatbots help users find answers, reduce service costs for companies, and improve user experience.

Malicious bots pose a serious threat to businesses. They can attack websites, applications, servers, advertising, social networks, smart devices and generate artificial traffic.

A bot attack can have serious consequences. It can be carried out with the purpose of:

• disabling a resource (DDoS);
• SEO traffic generation (black optimization technology);
• sending fake applications;
• artificially inflating clicks on advertising, etc.

That is why it is very important to learn in advance what they are, what are the classic signs and patterns of attacks. Then in the future it will be easier to identify unwanted activity on the site.

The standard bot attack algorithm is as follows:

1. Search for potential vulnerabilities and attack targets on a site. This may include scanning for outdated software or security configuration errors.
2. Infection with malware. To do this, attackers send phishing emails, malicious links, or force software to be downloaded to the user's device without their knowledge (drive-by download).
3. Establishing a communication channel with the C&C server to control the malware and launch attacks.
4. Attack: Once the attackers establish a communication channel, they launch bots to carry out an attack on the site.

Bots generate almost half of all online traffic. Chances are that you have already been attacked by them (we are not counting search robots, i.e. useful ones). Malicious bots can participate in stealing content and user data, overloading resources and slowing down their work, etc.

They can reduce site performance, cause downtime, and loss of potential profits. The more invalid bot traffic you have on your site, the more damage they can cause.

9 Types of Bot Attacks​

Botmasters use many different types of techniques to attack websites. The method they choose will depend on the goal they want to achieve.

• Denial of Service (DoS) - An avalanche-like attack that hits a resource and fills the site with malicious bot traffic, disabling it. Because of this, it becomes unavailable to ordinary users.
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) - A more powerful attack with serious consequences. To carry it out, attackers send an army of bots from different locations and multiple devices.
• Scraping. This type of attack is designed to steal specific content or the interface of the entire site. Bots are tasked with copying data, such as catalogs, prices, or user data.
• Stuffing: This method involves the process of bots attempting to log into a user's account using stolen data from past leaks.
• Brute force attacks. A method in which bots try to gain access to user accounts by trying passwords. The simpler the password, the easier it is for attackers to gain access. This could be not only customer accounts, but also administrators, content creators, and other users who administer websites.
• Spam. Sending spam via forms or comments. A type of malicious attack in which bots send fraudulent or unwanted information via online forms for applications, contacts, comments, subscriptions, etc.
• Account hijacking. The purpose of this attack is to gain unauthorized access to user accounts.
• Catalog scraping. In this case, bots extract information from online store catalogs about prices and products. As a rule, competitors do this to build their own pricing policy.
• SEO spam: Malicious bot traffic can manipulate a site's search engine rankings by generating spam backlinks or large numbers of clicks on specific pages.

We have listed nine types of fraudulent techniques used by cybercriminals to attack websites. Each of them is selected by cybercriminals in accordance with their goals and objectives.

Why is it important to block bots on websites​

There is no end to malicious bot traffic. According to the latest data, its share in 2022 was 30.2%, an increase of 2.5% compared to 2021.

Invalid data and lost time and money are just a small part of what bot traffic can lead to. The consequences, unfortunately, can be more serious.

What does this mean for your website and business:

• Corrupted analytics. There may be problems with collecting real statistics on visits, since it will contain bot traffic. You will not be able to realistically assess the performance of your resource, which will affect future decision-making.
• Data leakage. Bots can exploit site vulnerabilities and gain access to user personal data for further use for fraudulent purposes.
• Downtime. An avalanche of bot traffic can disable the server. The site will simply be unavailable to ordinary users. This can also negatively affect its positions in search engines.
• Impact on SEO: Bots can impact SEO metrics and increase or decrease traffic. Ultimately, this can impact the visibility of the site in search.
• Content theft . As we said earlier, attackers can use bots to steal and duplicate content. This can negatively affect both the company's reputation and promotion.
• Security threat: Some bots may attempt to hack a website through security vulnerabilities to steal data, hijack user accounts, make fraudulent purchases, etc.
• Deterioration of user experience. Bot traffic can cause real users to have difficulty loading pages or logging into their accounts.
• Reputational damage. Users who are unable to access a site because of slow loading pages may have a negative experience and become disillusioned with the company's services, even if they were previously satisfied with everything. What's worse, if they find out that their data has been compromised and their access and other information may have been stolen by intruders, this can lead to serious reputational damage and undermine their trust.
• Wasted time and resources. If you are dealing with unwanted traffic generated by bots, then dealing with the consequences of such an attack can waste your time and require additional investment. For example, your company's marketing team will be forced to analyze statistics corrupted by bots and may draw incorrect conclusions.
• Loss of Revenue: Ad fraud by bots and a reduced user experience can result in loss of revenue.

Bots generate huge amounts of traffic and cause serious damage to companies. To cope with malicious attacks, it is necessary to know its signs.

How to recognize a bot attack​

Early detection of bot traffic will be a decisive step in successfully combating fraud. If you do not use special software to protect your site from attacks, you should independently conduct regular monitoring of statistics and analyze traffic for bot activity. Signs of an attack are as follows:

Sharp traffic spikes

Bots tend to carry out lightning attacks. This means that it will last for a short period of time. Therefore, pay attention to sudden jumps in large volumes of traffic.

If you notice that the number of visits to your site has suddenly and significantly increased in a short period of time, then you should pay attention to cybersecurity services that specialize in combating bots.

Server load

A bot attack causes increased load on the server. This is because malicious robots make many repeated requests to the site. This overloads the server and leads to decreased performance. In some cases, downtime is possible. If you notice a sudden and abnormal increase in load, then most likely you are being attacked by bots.

High bounce rate

Fraudsters develop bots in such a way that they can imitate the behavior of real users on websites. However, as a rule, their task is a limited number of actions.

For example, bots on average do not visit multiple pages at once and do not search for information the way humans do. They simply follow a set algorithm of actions, visit a certain page and immediately leave it.

Unusual patterns of behavior on the page

Users tend to browse a site's pages in a logical manner, scrolling through them at regular intervals, smoothly moving between sections that interest them. Bots, on the other hand, may visit and browse them in a predictable order, or visit pages that are hidden from ordinary users.

For example, a bot can visit each page of an online store catalog in order and at equal intervals, or endlessly open the same page. If you notice such patterns on your resource, you should analyze this data in more detail.

Failed login attempts

In brute force attacks, bots try passwords from user accounts of the hacked site. And it's not limited to a couple of accounts. In this case, the attackers' goal is to gain access to as much data as possible.

An increase in the number of service forms being filled out that regular users would ignore (if they had access to them at all) is a sign of an attack.

How to Recover a Website After a Bot Attack​

Restoring a site after a bot attack can take a long time. To do this, you need to take the following steps:

• Assess the damage. Try to determine which pages and elements of your site were affected and the level of damage.
• Remove unwanted code. Remove all detected malicious code, change passwords, restore damaged data.
• Take additional security measures. This will protect your site from further bot attacks. You can implement AI captchas, application firewalls (WAF), set a limit on the number of failed login attempts, etc.
• Monitor and analyze traffic. Monitor analytics regularly to track your website traffic. This way, you can detect unusual behavior patterns and technical parameters in time.
• Prevent potential attacks. Strengthen your site's security systems, implement best practices and bot detection solutions.

How to avoid serious damage​

The first step in your fight against attacks is to identify signs of malicious bot traffic on your site. To avoid potential damage, you should take the following steps:

Follow the analytics

Constantly monitor the resource's traffic and analyze the data not only manually, but also using the marketer's analytical tools. This will help you detect abnormal and suspicious activity.

Find vulnerabilities

Conduct a thorough assessment of your site to determine if there are any weak points through which attackers can gain access. Once vulnerabilities are identified, it will be easier for you to take appropriate security measures. This is an excellent preventative measure against bot attacks.

Identify pages that are most likely to be attacked

List the most important pages of your site. This will help you determine where attackers will primarily direct their attacks - you will be able to respond to them in time.

Create a response plan

Develop a plan that outlines the steps to take to respond to bot traffic. Include steps that will help mitigate damage and quickly restore your site to working order.

Regular audits

Conduct regular audits of your website and its security system. Test it to find potential vulnerabilities that can be attacked by bots.

Education and training

Educate your team about the risks associated with bot attacks and effective methods for recognizing suspicious activity. Conduct training for your team. Ask them to report them immediately upon detection.

Recovery

Develop a plan to return your site to its pre-attack state. This may include restoring data from backups, patching vulnerabilities, or changing passwords.

Protection against bot attacks​

The most effective way to protect your site from malicious attacks is to use advanced bot detection tools to mitigate the impact. They help automatically identify invalid traffic and implement mechanisms to block it.