What Is a Bot? Understanding the Basics of Bots

What is a bot? Simply put, a bot – short for “robot” is an automated software program designed to perform repetitive tasks. Bots operate on networks and the internet, following predefined instructions without the need for human intervention. But not all bots are created equal. They range from helpful assistants facilitating online activities to malicious threats causing significant harm. They do jobs that most people would find too repetitive or time-consuming. Bot traffic can vary in technical complexity depending on its function.

Type of Bots: The Good and The Bad

Hearing the word “bot” sends many an advertiser into a panic. All too often, we see news stories of bots participating in ad fraud scandals, security breaches, and other forms of cybercrime. However, the word “bot” isn’t a catch-all term for malicious software. As with most things in life, there are good bots and bad bots.

The Good Bots

Good bots keep the digital world turning. Without them, search engines, social media, and e-commerce sites would struggle to function efficiently. Here are some of the most common types you might see in the wild.

Search Engine Bots (Web Crawlers)

Often known as spiders, spider bots or crawlers, these bots visit web pages to gather and index information for search engines. They analyze content relevance and help determine how pages rank in organic search results.

Social Network Bots

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter use bots to personalize content. They gather and process user interactions data, significantly improving user experience.

Chatbots

Chatbots use natural processing and artificial intelligence to interact with site visitors, streamline customer service, and boost engagement.

Backlink Checker Bots

Vital to SEO specialists, backlink checkers crawl websites looking for inbound links. They provide insights into traffic sources, enabling better SEO optimization.

Monitoring Bots

These bots perform continuous scans for technical issues or unusual activities. They alert site owners to potential security threats or performance bottlenecks.

Feed Fetcher Bots

These bots specialize in collecting and sending real-time information, such as news updates, blog posts, or weather alerts to subscribers

Copyright Bots

These bots help protect intellectual property by scanning the internet for stolen or duplicated content, identifying potential infringements quickly.

Trader Bots

Similar to spider bots, trader bots crawl around the web for pricing information. Online retailers like eBay and Amazon use trader bots to keep an eye on their rivals and offer competitive deals on products.

Recognizing and Understanding Malicious Bots

Unfortunately, bad bots are just as prevalent and pose serious risks. They’re designed explicitly to exploit vulnerabilities, steal data, and commit ad fraud. Here are the most common malicious bots businesses encounter: there are a lot of bad bots freely roaming the web. Knowing each type of bot’s destructive capabilities may give you an advantage in protecting your online presence. Let's define these bots here:

Scraper Bots

Scraper bots harvest content from websites without permission, repurposing it elsewhere illegally or competitively, harming both SEO and content originality.

Click Bots

Often referred to as advertising bots, these artificially inflate ad clicks, skewing market analytics and wasting advertising budgets. Advertisers are all too familiar with click bots. These bots intentionally visit sites and click on ads with the goal of warping ad campaign data and burning through an advertiser’s budget. For advertisers who pay on a CPC basis, click bots can be devastating.

Spam Bots

Spam bots flood forums, emails, and comments sections with unwanted advertising, phishing links, or malicious downloads. These bots plague comment sections, lead forms, and email inboxes spreading unsolicited messages, advertising links, and other forms of spam. Spam bots are also programmed to phish for personal information that users submit through forms, such as phone numbers, email addresses, and passwords.

Spy Bots

These bots collect sensitive information through methods like keylogging or packet sniffing. The stolen data is often sold or used for malicious purposes. Hackers use spy bots mainly for surveillance and data collection purposes. Spy bots steal personal information about a company, website, or person by logging keystrokes or intercepting packets. Some hackers sell that data to outside parties for a profit.

Transfer Bots

Also known as download bots, these bad bots redirect legitimate visitors from safe websites to malicious or fraudulent sites. Sometimes called download bots, transfer bots are responsible for forced redirects. Transfer bots attach themselves to reputable websites and wait for users to click through. Instead of sending users to the site they requested, transfer bots redirect them to another site, usually one set up by a fraudster or hacker.

Impersonator Bots

Designed to evade detection, these bots mimic human behavior to bypass security measures like CAPTCHA tests and access secure areas of websites. Disguising themselves as human visitors, impersonator bots try to get past site security. Obstacles like CAPTCHA codes are used to keep impersonator bots from reaching sites, but they are only getting more sophisticated as technology improves.

File-Sharing Bots

Disguised as legitimate users, these bots share malware-infected files via popular file-sharing services, deceiving visitors into downloading harmful software.

Zombie Bots and Botnets

Zombie bots infect computers, allowing hackers remote control. A network of compromised computers, or botnet, launches coordinated cyberattacks, such as DDoS attacks, overwhelming and disabling servers.

How to Prevent Bot Traffic and Protect Your Business

Preventing bot traffic requires proactive and advanced methods, including:

• How to prevent bot traffic: Implement advanced bot detection solutions like Anura to proactively identify and stop harmful bot traffic.
• How to stop bots in general: Deploy robust firewall settings, antivirus software, and behavioral analysis tools to immediately detect and stop bots.
• How to stop bots from submitting forms: Protect online forms with validation measures such as CAPTCHA and invisible bot-detection technologies.

How Anura Detects and Stops Bot Traffic

Anura provides advanced, highly accurate bot mitigation solutions designed to protect businesses from all forms of malicious bot traffic. Our specialized fraud detection system leverages nearly two decades of data intelligence and machine learning technology to detect and eliminate bots in real-time.

Here’s why Anura’s solution stands out:

• 99.999% Accuracy Guarantee
• In-Depth Visitor Analysis
• Fraud Source Identification
• Easy Implementation
• Continuous Improvement
• Unparalleled Customer Service

At Anura, bot detection and ad fraud prevention is our core expertise. Our solution is proven, certified against fraud by TAG, and trusted across industries.

Bots may be getting smarter, but so are bot detection solutions like Anura.

Ready to Protect Your Business?

Take the first step toward protecting your business from harmful bot traffic today. Sign up for Anura’s free 15-day trial and start proactively defending your digital presence from bots.