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If you are not yet aware of the latest events in the life of Twitter, then we will remind you that not long ago this popular platform was acquired by the famous magnate from the world of progressive technologies and innovations Elon Musk. Following this, he declared war on bots. His position towards them is as follows: either he will emerge victorious from this battle, or he will die a heroic death. In general, the battle with robots is not for life, but for death.
His fight is going with varying success and, hand on heart, I want to know: if Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world according to Forbes magazine, cannot defeat the bots, then is there even the slightest chance for everyone else to do so?
Contents
1. On Musk's fight against bots
2. Are all bots banned on Twitter?
3. What types of bots operate on the network
3.1. Clickbots
3.2. Formbots
3.3. Bots for boosting views
3.4. Impostor Bots
3.5. Scraper Bots
3.6. Spambots
3.7. Phishing bots
3.8. Zombie Bots
3.9. Botnets
4. How bots-as-a-service impacts business
5. Protection from bots
At the end of March, Musk did enable paid verification, and those who had already received a free badge had to go through it again. This verification was cancelled. Users, including famous people, magazines and brands, are indignant.
The actual number of Twitter users, and therefore the estimated value of the platform, became a contentious area of the deal that was almost cancelled between Twitter and Musk. Twitter claimed that the percentage of spambots on the platform was less than 5%, a figure that is still disputed.
The company freezes accounts for suspicious activity, and to regain access to them, you will need to provide additional information (such as a phone number) or solve reCaptcha. In some cases, accounts may even be banned altogether.
But of course, not all bots are malicious. Twitter's policy regarding the availability of its code has always been more than loyal. Third-party developers were given access to part of the API to write additional programs. Many of them subsequently became useful and popular among users. Twitter even made a special label for them.
For example, notifications from public services, weather warnings, etc. Or here is @tynicarebot, which gives short useful tips and tweets reminders.
Unfortunately, Musk, in his quest to increase profits by charging higher fees to real users, has announced that Twitter will no longer allow developers to use automation on the platform for free.
This has left legitimate developers and organizations with a choice: can they, or even want to, play by the new rules as malicious bots continue to flood the platform? After all, Twitter fraud is worth the money invested by the attackers three times over.
Anil Dash, a tech entrepreneur and longtime Twitter user, made a key point: “Twitter, by killing the API with these monetary charges, will only increase the loss of valuable content on the platform (and many of the most effective and unique content creators publish their content through the API), while malicious bots will continue to bypass the API as they have in the past.”
And now the platform has to rush between two fires: trying to monetize its resources and follow the promise of its new head, that is, to create an environment free of bots.
According to cybersecurity experts, the amount of malicious bot traffic increased by 50% during the New Year holidays alone.
Companies, in turn, rely on useful human traffic and real, not fake, applications that will allow them to increase sales and improve profits. However, how can you determine where the malicious bot is and where the useful one is?
That's the whole point. It requires cybersecurity systems that protect your ad campaigns from bots, clickbaits, and competitors. And you don't have to wait for Elon Musk or anyone else to come up with their own defense system.
Here are the bots you need to protect against:
And we will remind you once again that in 2022, the damage from advertising fraud exceeded 81 billion dollars. Experts assume that by the end of 2023 this figure will increase to 100 billion.
With their help, dishonest partners and marketers engage in fake lead generation and artificially inflate their marketing indicators. According to experts, the share of such traffic can reach 25-30%.
Who needs it? As a rule, opinion leaders, influencers who receive payment for views of the placed advertisements. This is a technology of hidden business games, in which an unprepared marketer can become a victim.
Scraper bots collect everything: texts, images, even internal and external links, and then use them to create clones or duplicates.
It is best to use Antibot for a site that does not force real users to pass a difficult to solve captcha, but simply blocks malicious bots.
They can even disguise themselves as chatbots, engaging in dialogue with the user and extracting personal and other data from them. For example, the Bleeping Computer portal reported how victims voluntarily transferred personal information to phishing bots that used a simple notification about the delivery of a parcel for this.
Used by everyone from lone thieves to organized crime groups, zombie bots and botnets are a leading tool and destructive form of cybercriminal and malware attacks targeting both private businesses and the public sector.
Here's what you can do to protect your own business from bots:
Digital fraudsters are not going to reduce their bot attacks anytime soon, quite the opposite. That’s why companies need to invest in advanced cybersecurity solutions to stay ahead.
His fight is going with varying success and, hand on heart, I want to know: if Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world according to Forbes magazine, cannot defeat the bots, then is there even the slightest chance for everyone else to do so?
Contents
1. On Musk's fight against bots
2. Are all bots banned on Twitter?
3. What types of bots operate on the network
3.1. Clickbots
3.2. Formbots
3.3. Bots for boosting views
3.4. Impostor Bots
3.5. Scraper Bots
3.6. Spambots
3.7. Phishing bots
3.8. Zombie Bots
3.9. Botnets
4. How bots-as-a-service impacts business
5. Protection from bots
On Musk's fight against bots
This statement was followed by a demand to re-verify personal accounts, which has now become a paid process (previously it was free). This is the first serious and threatening attack on click farms and Internet fraudsters.At the end of March, Musk did enable paid verification, and those who had already received a free badge had to go through it again. This verification was cancelled. Users, including famous people, magazines and brands, are indignant.
The actual number of Twitter users, and therefore the estimated value of the platform, became a contentious area of the deal that was almost cancelled between Twitter and Musk. Twitter claimed that the percentage of spambots on the platform was less than 5%, a figure that is still disputed.
Are all Twitter bots banned?
Spam bots are not allowed to enter the site. Users can safely send complaints to support about violation of the rules.The company freezes accounts for suspicious activity, and to regain access to them, you will need to provide additional information (such as a phone number) or solve reCaptcha. In some cases, accounts may even be banned altogether.
But of course, not all bots are malicious. Twitter's policy regarding the availability of its code has always been more than loyal. Third-party developers were given access to part of the API to write additional programs. Many of them subsequently became useful and popular among users. Twitter even made a special label for them.
For example, notifications from public services, weather warnings, etc. Or here is @tynicarebot, which gives short useful tips and tweets reminders.
Unfortunately, Musk, in his quest to increase profits by charging higher fees to real users, has announced that Twitter will no longer allow developers to use automation on the platform for free.
This has left legitimate developers and organizations with a choice: can they, or even want to, play by the new rules as malicious bots continue to flood the platform? After all, Twitter fraud is worth the money invested by the attackers three times over.
Anil Dash, a tech entrepreneur and longtime Twitter user, made a key point: “Twitter, by killing the API with these monetary charges, will only increase the loss of valuable content on the platform (and many of the most effective and unique content creators publish their content through the API), while malicious bots will continue to bypass the API as they have in the past.”
And now the platform has to rush between two fires: trying to monetize its resources and follow the promise of its new head, that is, to create an environment free of bots.
What types of bots operate online
The current state of social networks shows that their control systems are weak in dealing with bot activity on the platforms. Therefore, advertisers must take care of protecting their advertising budgets and marketing campaigns from bots and fake users.According to cybersecurity experts, the amount of malicious bot traffic increased by 50% during the New Year holidays alone.
Companies, in turn, rely on useful human traffic and real, not fake, applications that will allow them to increase sales and improve profits. However, how can you determine where the malicious bot is and where the useful one is?
That's the whole point. It requires cybersecurity systems that protect your ad campaigns from bots, clickbaits, and competitors. And you don't have to wait for Elon Musk or anyone else to come up with their own defense system.
Here are the bots you need to protect against:
Clickbots
Clickbots click on advertisements to artificially inflate campaign metrics and burn the advertiser's budget. The entire balance allocated for advertising on social networks is immediately "reaped" by bots.And we will remind you once again that in 2022, the damage from advertising fraud exceeded 81 billion dollars. Experts assume that by the end of 2023 this figure will increase to 100 billion.
Form bots
These bots are programmed to fill out forms on websites with fake data. They are used by fraudsters who work in affiliate programs.With their help, dishonest partners and marketers engage in fake lead generation and artificially inflate their marketing indicators. According to experts, the share of such traffic can reach 25-30%.
Bots for boosting views
In general, the title describes the whole essence of these bots: they inflate views of video ads or banners, artificially inflate metrics and reduce conversion.Who needs it? As a rule, opinion leaders, influencers who receive payment for views of the placed advertisements. This is a technology of hidden business games, in which an unprepared marketer can become a victim.
Impostor bots
Bots that impersonate a person and imitate their behavior. For example, they fill out application forms and navigate through the pages of a website. As a result, they artificially increase the resource's indicators and spend not only the advertiser's or marketer's money, but also reduce their efforts to zero.Scraper Bots
These are scripts that steal quality content from websites and post it on fraudulent resources. They are very dangerous for advertisers.Scraper bots collect everything: texts, images, even internal and external links, and then use them to create clones or duplicates.
Spam bots
These bots sow spam in comments, application forms, personal dialogues and emails, sending unwanted letters and messages, advertising links and other forms of spam. As a rule, advertisers and site owners try to fight them with the help of CAPTCHA. Unfortunately, this technology is already outdated and can do more harm than good.It is best to use Antibot for a site that does not force real users to pass a difficult to solve captcha, but simply blocks malicious bots.
Phishing bots
These bots are programmed to carry out phishing attacks to steal users' personal and banking data. They send spam messages disguised as emails from official sources and trick users into entering personal information on malicious clone sites.They can even disguise themselves as chatbots, engaging in dialogue with the user and extracting personal and other data from them. For example, the Bleeping Computer portal reported how victims voluntarily transferred personal information to phishing bots that used a simple notification about the delivery of a parcel for this.
Zombie Bots
Zombie bots are computers infected with malware that can be remotely controlled by hackers. The owner of the resource may not even know that his device has been compromised and that he has a secret "neighbor".Botnets
The essence of a botnet is this: several computers are infected with the same malicious program, and then united into one common network. Then the attacker uses this botnet to carry out attacks on websites, advertising, and ordinary users.Used by everyone from lone thieves to organized crime groups, zombie bots and botnets are a leading tool and destructive form of cybercriminal and malware attacks targeting both private businesses and the public sector.
How bots-as-a-service are impacting business
The development of botnet and bot attack technology does not stand still. They are constantly improving, and they are becoming more difficult to detect using cybersecurity systems. Therefore, finding suitable solutions, tools and blocking services can be somewhat confusing.Here's what you can do to protect your own business from bots:
- Update your software regularly. Outdated software is a real treasure trove of vulnerabilities for a hacker who can use them to hack your device. To avoid this, update your software, operating systems, and other devices regularly.
- Secure all touchpoints. Business owners should be concerned about securing all resources that have access to the internet, such as applications and APIs, not just websites.
- Check your traffic sources carefully. It is advisable to check your incoming traffic daily to detect bot or other suspicious activity in time.
- Check for failed login attempts. A sharp increase in the number of failed login attempts may indicate that your site has been attacked, with bots attempting to brute force their way into your resource.
- Implement special cyber protection systems against bots, along with a firewall and antiviruses.
Digital fraudsters are not going to reduce their bot attacks anytime soon, quite the opposite. That’s why companies need to invest in advanced cybersecurity solutions to stay ahead.
