Watch Out for These Bad Bots

Zombies, Scrapers, and Bots, oh my!

Fraudsters use malicious bots to spread spam, steal content, collect personal data, and many other nefarious schemes. And they’re everywhere.

Recent estimates suggest that nearly 50% of all online traffic is bots. Even more concerning is that one-third of all traffic comes from bad bots, in particular. With more malware bots out there, every business is at risk of having these malicious programs mess with their digital marketing campaigns.

The first step to defending yourself and your web assets is simply knowing the different types of bad bots that are out there. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to take the necessary precautions to minimize this threat and have an upper hand in defending yourself.

Here’s what you need to know about bad bots and malware.

Are All Bots Dangerous?

Not necessarily.

As we said before, 50% of all online traffic is bots. But only a fraction of that is bad bots.

Good bots follow the rules set by websites, meaning they don’t access things they’re not supposed to. While bad bots disregard these rules and engage in unauthorized activities. Good bots also serve many legitimate and useful purposes.

These programs can streamline tasks and have a positive impact on websites and the user experience. They can even be programmed to identify and prevent malicious activities.

You’ve likely heard or come across some of these bots in your personal or professional life:

• Search Engine Crawlers: These bots are used by search engines to catalog websites and enhance search outcomes.
• Social Media Bots: These bots perform automated tasks on social media platforms, including managing ads, posting updates, and replying to comments.
• Customer Service Bots: These bots provide assistance and support to visitors and users on websites.

The Types of Bad Bots

Bad bots come in all shapes and sizes, and each one performs a different function.

Some malicious bot examples include spam bots that send out spam emails, zombie bots that convert computers into a "zombie army" to aid in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack and file-sharing bots that share copyrighted material without permission, just to name a few.

Each type of malicious bot has a specific job and performs differently. Let’s take a closer look at what some of these bad bots are really capable of.

Spam Bots. One of the most common and troublesome types of bots are spam bots. These bots will scour the internet for email addresses to collect and send unsolicited spam emails, links, and other junk. They may also be present on lead forms and comment sections. So be careful when filling out any information online - especially if it's a form that asks for your email address.

Related Post: What Is A Bot?

Spy Bots. Spy bots are particularly dangerous, as they can collect data about you without your permission. Be sure to install anti-virus software and keep your computer up to date to protect yourself from these harmful bot hackers.

Zombie Bots and Botnets. Zombie bots are compromised computers that hackers have access to and can control from anywhere in the world. While hackers control these computers, users usually have no idea.

A collection of zombie computers is called a botnet. Botnets are often used to send spam, conduct DDoS attacks, or mine cryptocurrencies.

Related Post: Botnet Detection 101: Everything You Need To Know

File-Sharing Bots. When you're online, be on the lookout for these malicious bots. These bots can spread malware, viruses, and other harmful files to unsuspecting users.

One common way that these bots operate is by posting links to malicious websites or files on social media platforms like Facebook. So, if you're looking for information on the latest movie release, be careful about clicking any links that are posted by bots. Instead, try doing a Google search to find the information you're looking for.

Chat Bot. Chat bots are one type of malicious bot. While there are other legitimate uses for chat bots (like customer service bots), they can also be programmed with malicious intent. After all, chat bots are designed to emulate human interaction. They can use this guise to acquire personal information.

You'll often find them on dating sites, messaging apps, or chat rooms. Be very careful about giving any personal information to chat bots - they may end up using it for nefarious purposes.

Scraper Bots. Scraper bots "scrape" or steal high-quality content from other websites and repurpose it on their own sites, which can hurt your website's search engine rankings. It can be hard to spot stolen content unless specifically searching for it.

Protect yourself by being aware of these bots hacking your content strategy and taking steps to protect your website.

Transfer Bots. These bots attach themselves to websites and wait for users to click. Then, transfer bots will redirect users to bad sites set up by fraudsters. Be careful when clicking on links, especially if they seem too good to be true and make sure that you're always going to trusted sources!

Click Bots. If you’ve used pay per click ads, you’ve probably run into click bots. These bots are designed to click on ads without ever buying anything. They exist purely to drive up advertising costs by artificially inflating ad clicks.

Impersonator Bots. Impersonator bots are becoming more and more sophisticated, and they can easily go undetected. They mimic human behavior online, filling out forms and clicking through sites. As bots become more sophisticated, security mechanisms like CAPTCHA are becoming easier for bots to crack.

How to Protect Yourself from Bad Bots

Don’t be fooled by bad bots. Now that you’re familiar with their characteristics, here are some extra tips to protect yourself.

• Don’t click any suspicious links.
• Set up malware protection for your devices.
• Don’t share personal information on unsecured online platforms.
• Track your analytics if you’re running an ad.
• Block sketchy IP addresses.
• Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Now that we know what bots are and how they can be used maliciously, it's important to take steps to protect yourself from them. Anura provides the protection you need to keep your marketing dollars safe from these bad bots and other fraudsters.

We guarantee a 99.999% accuracy rate when we mark a visitor as bad with our Anura Script integration, so you can rest assured that you are only spending on real engagement – not bots.

Experience the power of Anura and discover just how much fraud you have with a free trial!