What is a bot and its function?
A bot is a computer program that runs on a network. The bots are programmed to automatically perform certain actions. Normally the tasks performed by a bot are simple, but the bot can do it more often at a faster rate than one can do.
Bots can do any repetitive, non-creative work – anything can be done automatically. They can interact with a web page, complete and submit forms, click on links, scan text, and download content.
What is Bot Management?
Bot Management is a strategy that allows you to filter which bots are allowed to access your web assets. With this strategy, you can enable useful bots, such as Google search engines, while blocking malicious or unwanted bots, such as those used for cyber-attacks. Bot management strategies are designed to detect bot activity, identify bot sources, and determine the type of activity.
Bot management is necessary because bots if left unchecked, can cause serious web architecture problems. Too much bot traffic can put a heavy burden on web servers, slow down or deny the service to legitimate users (sometimes this takes the form of DDoS attacks). Malicious bots can scratch or download content from your website, steal user information, quickly spread spam content, and engage in other forms of cyberattacks.
Management systems that are too strict or that detect fake bots can cause significant damage to an organization’s business. For example, blocking bots on a search engine can lead to loss of traffic, conversions, and revenue, and blocking home-grown bots used for automated testing and automation can disrupt important business operations.
Bot management uses a range of security, machine learning, and web development technologies to accurately detect bots and prevent dangerous activity while allowing legitimate bots to operate without interruption.
How Does Bot Management Work?
To identify bots, bot administrators can use JavaScript challenges (deciding whether to use a standard web browser or not) or CAPTCHA challenges. They may also determine which users are human and which bot is based on behavioral analysis – which means comparing user behavior with normal user behavior in the past. Bot managers need to have a large collection of quality ethics data that they can check to do the latest.
Currently, three main methods of detecting and managing bots are used.
• Fixed method — uses static analytics tools to identify headers and web applications that are known to be associated with malicious bots. This process does not work and can only detect known and active bots.
• A challenge-based approach — using practical challenges or difficult or impossible tests for bots to perform to detect bots. Common challenges include CAPTCHA authentication, JavaScript capability, cookie acceptance.
• Behavior — evaluates user activity that may be related to that function about known patterns to ensure user identity. This process uses a few profiles to separate work and differentiate between human users, good bots, and bad bots.
The most effective bot management strategies incorporate all three strategies to detect the largest number of bots. Combining strategies increases your chances of identifying bots whether they are newly created or have flexible behavior.
In addition to self-control bots, one can also use bot reduction services. These services use automated tools to apply the above strategies and identify bots. They typically monitor your API traffic and use limitations to prevent API abuse. This level limit allows services to limit bots throughout your area rather than focusing on a single IP.
