Security News > 2023 > May > Bad bots are coming for APIs

For the first time, mobile Safari was one of the leading self-reported user agents, while the volume of bots claiming to be mobile browsers increased 42.78%. In 2020 and 2021, bad bots became the pandemic of the internet as automation became more sophisticated.

"Cybercriminals will increase their focus on attacking API endpoints and application business logic with sophisticated automation. As a result, the business disruption and financial impact associated with bad bots will become even more significant in the coming years," Triebes continued.

In 2022, the proportion of bad bots classified as "Advanced" accounted for 51.2% of all bad bot traffic.

In comparison, the level of bad bot sophistication in 2021 was 25.9%. This is a concerning trend for businesses as advanced bad bots use the latest evasion techniques and closely mimic human behavior to evade detection by cycling through random IPs, entering through anonymous proxies, and changing identities.

Bad bots target APIs to abuse business logic and compromise accounts.

In 2022, 17% of all attacks on APIs came from bad bots abusing business logic.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/05/15/bad-bot-traffic-volume/