The question on everyone’s mind: Have bots quietly taken control of the internet? In 2024, reports show that more than half of web traffic didn’t come from humans—it came from automated bots. And not all of them are harmless. Many are actively manipulating websites, stealing data, and disrupting businesses.
🤖 What Caused the Rise of Bots?
Bigger, smarter bots have emerged, thanks to the generative AI boom. With tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, creating human-like bots became easy—even for non-experts. These bots simulate everything from mouse movements to clicks, making them hard to detect.
According to Imperva’s 2025 Bad Bot Report, 51% of all web traffic in 2024 was automated. Of that, only 14% were benign bots like search engine crawlers. The remaining 37% were malicious— used for fraud, data theft, or attacking websites.
The Bot Battlefront: Where are They Attacking?
1. Travel and Hospitality
Bots generated fake flight bookings and reservation spikes, inflating prices and hurting genuine travelers.
2. E-commerce
In 2024, 59% of retail traffic was from malicious bots. They scooped up limited-edition items—creating artificial shortages and reselling them at inflated prices.
3. Financial Services
A striking 45% of traffic in finance came from bad bots. They attempted to steal credentials, commit payment fraud, and exploit API weaknesses.
How AI Enhanced Bot Threats
Generative AI made sophisticated bot creation a breeze:
- Low barrier to entry: No programming needed—chat-based AI tools do the work.
- Unpredictable patterns: Bots mimic human behavior, bypassing traditional defenses like CAPTCHAs.
- High-volume attacks: Imperva blocked around 2 million AI-based cyberattacks daily in 2024, many targeting API endpoints and social media platforms.
Over 31% of all attacks involved automated bots, and 55% of these were advanced assaults on business logic. Even simple “low-hanging fruit” bot attacks rose to 45% from last year’s 40%.
Who’s Leading the Bot Race?
Top malicious bot engines in 2024 included:
- ByteSpider Bot – Dominated 54% of AI-driven attacks.
- AppleBot – Accounted for 26% of malicious traffic.
- ClaudeBot and ChatGPT User Bot – Responsible for 13% and 6% respectively.
ByteSpider’s disguise as a legitimate web crawler helped it evade detection and penetrate systems.
Meanwhile, “good bots” like OpenAI’s GPT Bot and Google’s AI Scanner ramped up usage by 12% and 62% respectively—used to gather real-time data and improve AI models.
Targeting Social Media: Influence and Deception
Studies from Carnegie Mellon University show worrying trends:
- During the 2023 Chinese spy balloon incident, bots flooded platforms like X (formerly Twitter).
- Around 35% of U.S.-based geo-tagged accounts and 64% of Chinese ones behaved like bots, spreading hashtags like #chineseballoon and #weatherballoon.
- Only 58% of non-geolocated accounts posting those hashtags were human.
Bots target social networks to amplify emotions, stoke debates, or sway public opinion—all while blending in undetected.
The Data Scraper Epidemic
Arkose Labs reported a 432% surge in scraper bot attacks between Q1 and Q2 2023. These bots harvest user accounts, product listings, and internal metrics—used later for phishing, impersonation, or tailored scams.
API abuse also soared:
- 44% of malicious bot attacks targeted APIs directly—leading to fraud or data theft.
Financial Fallout for Businesses
Malicious bots don’t just steal data—they steal revenue:
- 83% of companies faced bot attacks in a year (Kasada, 2021).
- 77% lost 6%+ of revenue due to these attacks, and 39% lost 10%+.
- Average cost per major bot attack? A staggering $500,000, and many companies spent $250,000+ annually on anti-bot tools.
Global distribution of attacks in 2024:
- United States: 53%
- UK and Brazil: 6% each
- Ukraine and Russia: Among top 10 in EMEA region—amid ongoing conflicts and hacktivism.
How Bots Evade Detection
Sophisticated evasion tactics include:
- Browser impersonation: Mimicking Chrome, Firefox, Edge to bypass identification.
- Residential proxies: Routing traffic via real users to seem legitimate.
- Privacy tools: Masks like iCloud Private Relay blur bot vs. human behavior.
- API exploitation: Direct access where defenses are weak.
- App vulnerabilities: Outdated apps allow credential stuffing or unauthorized changes.
- AI-powered CAPTCHA attacks: Bots bypass human checks with high success.
AI “Bot Arms Race”: Good vs. Bad
Not all bots are villains. Some are vital:
- GPT Bot and Google AI scanner gather data for model training.
- Search engines and security crawlers help businesses improve user experiences and protection.
But with malicious bots growing in volume and sophistication, organizations need smart countermeasures.
How You Can Stay Safe
Even as a user, you can shield yourself:
- Use unique, strong passwords across all sites.
- Keep your router and antivirus software updated.
- Avoid unverified VPN services.
- Cross-check social media information—bots often amplify rumors.
🔐 Final Thoughts: Battling the Bot Takeover
The internet tipped into an era dominated by automated bots in 2024. With 37% of traffic now malicious bots, cyber threats are more complex, frequent, and damaging than ever before. Businesses are losing billions, while social channels face manipulation at scale.
Defenses need an upgrade: AI-based detection, API protection, bot rules, and constant vigilance. And as users, basic digital hygiene helps protect personal data and reduce bot-driven manipulation.
We haven’t lost the internet yet—but the bot takeover is real. Staying informed, proactive, and secure is our best response.
