Do you see a lot of traffic suddenly on your blog/website, it may be bot traffic. Here is how to check and stop bot attacks on websites/blog.
A bot-related cybersecurity attack is a malicious action originated by cybercriminals to alter a scam or interfere with your website requests, API, or end-user. The criminals initiate automatic commands to your site to implement these actions on your website. These days, bot attacks have become complex multinational criminal projects with high complex infrastructures. Individuals or cyber-criminal organizations can execute bot attacks. They can use certain commands to alter the frequency and the length of the attack to dodge safety measures in place.
A botnet is a set of computers connected to each other and working together to complete recurring activities. A group of malicious botnet is a set of networked machines infected by malware to receive remote instructions to launch several attacks. The machines are controlled by malicious people who send some criminal instructions and malicious requests to steal vital information. They also send these instructions to send some instructions for fraudulent activities not originating from the owner.
Types of Data Targeted in Bot Attacks Include the following:
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Web Content Scraping
Content scraping bots use automated commands to get information from other sites duplicate the information without the knowledge or owner’s consent. They can then transfer the content to other websites without agreeing with the owner. In the end, such activity ends up lowering the search engine ranking of the specific site.
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Account Takeover
With data breaches, the user credentials became available in the market and sold to threat implementers. The attackers use stolen information to take over and control accounts that belong to other people. That can be referred to as account takeover fraud. They use several usernames and test multiple passwords until they get the matching password. Once they find the valid user credentials, they take over the website and lockout the legitimate users. Attackers use such credentials to commit all sorts of fraudulent activities.
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Form Submission Abuse
Attackers use form submission as a standard gateway to access information or infect the end-user with malware. They may put wrong or fraudulent information through the forms.
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API Abuse
APIs are critical, and the modern website uses them to enable organizations to access essential records to official users. Automated bots can take advantage of that to access vital information from the APIs.
Here is how you can safeguard your web activities and APIs from Cyber Security Threats:
Identify Possible Areas of Attack
It is paramount to scrutinize all web activities to ascertain a pattern of regular activity. After you have a threshold for expected behavior, then be wary of abnormal commands to help spot which requests indicate an attack to your website. Although threat activities are not identical in every organization, it would be necessary for each organization to identify its attack indicator.
Some of the everyday abnormal activities include the following:
- Password Reset
- Account Creation from a similar IP address
- Irregular increase in login attempts
Several passwords reset from different accounts may indicate that someone is trying to take over the account by changing the login credentials. Simultaneously, password reset allows an authorized user to access an account by changing the login credentials of a particular account or specific accounts. Also, if a similar IP is creating several accounts, it may be that the user wants to use the different accounts for fraudulent activities.
When you identify any of these activities, it is essential to be careful and make sure you follow the activity to identify the originator and the intention of the activity. It will be good to know whether it is a genuine user who has forgotten the password or a criminal trying to try different passwords to see whether one will work.
Take Action When you Notice a Bot Attack
Once you establish a certain web request pattern in your system, it will be easy to differentiate between the standard request and a lousy actor activity. You can block, observe, allow or be on the alert. The most important thing is to take the right measures per request action on each application to ensure no genuine activities are prevented or service disruption to valid users.
Blocking Capabilities
When you use advanced security tools, you will set apart the right users from criminal activities. A powerful combination of mitigation strategies and determining correct blacklisting allows businesses and companies to create appropriate protections to safeguard their websites. You should filter all the requests and prevent any malicious traffic before reaching the app origin API endpoint.
Exhibit and set up Actionable Data
As part of your management strategy, show and use the right information to draw together and picture all web request data. You should use precise description data as necessary as a bot attack strategy. You should inspect all the data requests to identify unfamiliar attributes in your web requests to formulate strategies, methods, or other automated systems.
How to Improve DA & PA Score of Website
It is advisable to use appropriate management tools and protection platforms to show all traffic directed to your website properties. It is a good way of understanding the impact harmful activities have on your resources. It will help you keep your operations costs reasonable for your entire security team.
Keep an Eye on the Possible Bad Bot Access Point
Although bot attacks favor websites, it does not mean that you should overlook other access points into the enterprise network. Other Exposed APIs and mobile apps are also vulnerable, and criminals can use them to intrude on your website. You should make sure you have your eye on them at all times.
Practice the Principle of Least Privilege among Employees
Make sure you limit admin rights in your business and allow the least privilege among your employees. At the same time, make sure more than one employee is responsible for completing their daily tasks. It will help you exercise control over different activities other than having the originator as the authorizer of the same activity. You can also use the Privileged Access Management principle to facilitate the process for network administrators and escalate suspicious activity.
One important thing to note when preventing bots’ activities is their versatile behavior. The attackers keep on using different methods to create the attack. Therefore, you should be ready to use different methods to counterattack the bots and make sure you know how to stop bot attacks on websites using the best protection strategies and tools. It would be best to use functionalities of vigilance, high-tech level of antivirus, and multiple layers threat prevention tool. Be ready to evolve the protection tools and management strategies together with the evolving attacks.