New reports now suggest that nearly half of all internet traffic is generated by bots—automated entities that can range from helpful tools to malicious threats. According to the Imperva 2024 Bad Bot Report, malicious bots accounted for 32% of all internet traffic in 2023, marking a 1.8% increase from the previous year. This rise looks to be partly fueled by the growing use of AI and large language models, which enable more sophisticated and harmful bot activity.
While bad and malicious bots are on the rise, good bots—those which perform useful tasks like search engine indexing—also saw a slight increase, making up 17.6% of internet traffic in 2023, up from 17.3% in 2022. Combined, bots accounted for 49.6% of all internet traffic last year, leaving human traffic at just 50.4%.
The report also provides a detailed breakdown of bad bot traffic, categorizing bots based on their level of sophistication and the tactics they use to evade detection. One notable finding is the significant rise in simple bad bot traffic, which increased from 33.4% of all bad bot traffic in 2022 to 39.6% in 2023.
This surge in simple bots can be largely attributed to the growing popularity and accessibility of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. With AI becoming more user-friendly, even individuals with limited technical expertise can now create basic bot scripts with ease. However, these simpler bots often lack the advanced evasion techniques employed by more sophisticated bots, making them easier to detect and classify.
While advanced bots continue to pose a significant threat, the rise of simple bots highlights how AI democratization has lowered the barrier to entry for malicious activities. This trend underscores the need for robust security measures to combat a broader range of bot-driven threats, from basic scripts to highly sophisticated attacks.
This alarming trend underscores the growing challenges businesses and consumers face in navigating an increasingly bot-dominated internet. As AI and LLMs continue to evolve, the battle against malicious bots is likely to intensify, requiring stronger defenses and proactive measures to protect users and brands alike.
About Author
