Bot mitigation is a critical component of any business’ cybersecurity strategy, as the vast majority of threats begin with malicious bots. Whether used to launch Distributed Denial of Service attacks, steal customer information or data, hoard resources, commit fraud and perform account takeovers, the threat posed by bots is significant, and companies need to have robust strategies in place to reduce risk and protect their digital assets and customers.

While conventional methods such as blacklisting and signature detection can be effective, they are often circumvented by resourceful bot operators. As such, businesses must deploy a multi-layered approach that leverages a combination of techniques to effectively detect and mitigate bot attacks while ensuring user experience is not adversely impacted.

The Ultimate Guide to Effective Bot Management: Safeguarding Your Online Assets

Identifying bot traffic is the first step in the mitigation process. This can be done using a combination of techniques such as IP analysis, device fingerprinting, and behavioral and anomaly analysis. Static analyses are also useful in detecting header information and web requests that are typically used by bad bots. Challenge-based approaches, such as CAPTCHA, that require a human response are another good way to distinguish humans from bots.

Once you’ve identified the bots, it is important to understand their nature and assess the level of risk they pose. Using this understanding, you can then implement measures to block the damaging bots while allowing the useful ones to operate unimpeded.