Website bot detection integration is essential for protecting user data and ensuring that the customer experience is authentic. Unscrupulous hackers use bots to perform automated actions on websites, such as attempting to guess passwords or buying concert tickets in bulk, which can steal value from your users and damage your brand reputation. This can lead to refunds, charges, lawsuits and regulatory fines, all of which can erode consumer trust.

Detecting bots requires sophisticated tools to monitor the full context of traffic. Traditional security methods, like web application firewalls and access-control lists (ACLs), are effective against known threats, but advanced bots are able to slip past them.

To stop them, you need to use a combination of techniques that can identify suspicious traffic, including:

User Agent Analysis: A bot’s user agent string can be a giveaway, as it often changes to avoid being detected by detection systems. Using a tool such as Puppeteer or Selenium to automate a task can leave clues as well.

Behavioral Analysis: Bots are known to click at the same spot on a page repeatedly, whereas humans are more likely to be erratic in their behavior. This erratic behavior, like pausing to read or clicking a mouse in a pattern that doesn’t correspond with normal human activity, can trigger detection systems.

Browser Fingerprinting: A common way to recognize a device is by collecting unique traits, such as the operating system, screen resolution, installed plugins and fonts, to create a “fingerprint.” If a device’s fingerprint matches that of a bot, it can be flagged.