Bots are software programs that perform automated tasks without the assistance of humans but are made to appear as humans. Some are good and some are bad. A good bot is helpful and utilizes its skills to complete tasks for your website. A bad bot violates a website’s terms of service. Some ways that bad bots can hurt your business are by account takeover and creation, skewing your marketing analytics by generating false clicks, traffic, and impressions, and by stealing and plagiarizing your content. All of these can be done by bad bots without your permission. Bad bots also have the ability to hurt or end your business permanently, so it becomes imperative for you to search for ways to protect your business’ website and overall brand.
CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. These are the tests you see and are asked to complete before continuing onto a website proving that you are human and not a bot. A CAPTCHA test is a puzzle. It involves a text box and a random arrangement of letters or a blurred image of numbers and pictures. To pass the test and prove your human identity, simply type in the letters or numbers that you see in the text box or select the correct images it is asking for. CAPTCHA works best because computer generated bots can create an image and a response, but they cannot read or solve the test the way a human can.
Honeypot Trapping
Honeypot trapping is a technique that is used for attracting and capturing bots. The purpose of these traps is to target bots that are typically found interjecting fake emails into the email forms on your website and harvesters or hackers who are trying to steal personal information, like details of bank accounts and email addresses. They do this so that the bots can be studied, and your brand can be better protected. This trapping also has the ability to redirect the bots to fake pages with fake content for them to steal instead. With this technique, one can understand the attacker’s behavioral patterns.
Regular Updates
Bots have the capability to access your website through an older version. Keeping your website updated ensures that you are always staying current with new releases and keeping your brand as protected as possible. Plus, software providers are constantly creating and updating new security systems to aid in the protection of brands for businesses.
Upgrade your Hosting
It is also important that when choosing a hosting provider, you choose one that is legitimate, trustworthy, stable, reliable, secure, and has the necessary protocols in place for bot protection. This is because bad bots target unstable hosting organizations. Finding a hosting solution that defends your brand against website traffic congestion and attacks caused by bad bots will positively impact your business.
Protection against bad bots should be a high priority for any business owner. It is important to remember that this is a constant on-going effort to preserve your brand and not have bad bots tarnish or diminish your brand name and reputation. Continuing to educate yourself on bad bots and how to take every precaution you can to prevent an attack will keep you less stressed and ensure a better online experience for your customer. Connect with us today to learn more about how to protect your brand from bad bots.
