Bot check are a key component of cyberattacks from bad actors who exploit online platforms to take over user accounts, perform transactions with stolen credit cards or digital onboarding with fake identity details. Detecting and blocking bots helps protect against fraud, loss of brand reputation and financial losses caused by chargebacks, refunds, lawsuits and regulatory fines.

In order to identify bots, you need to review several traffic patterns and behavior metrics, such as page views, referral traffic and average session duration. In addition, you can monitor your web server logs for unusual spikes in IP addresses or other identifying details that are often used by bots to bypass detection.

Testing Tools and Techniques to Protect Your Website and Applications

Another way to spot bots is by examining the HTTP headers that are sent in traffic flows. Usually, the headers contain specific information about a request that is being made to a URL. If bot traffic has no referrer or if it is forged, this will indicate that the bot is malicious.

Among other factors, look for accounts that were created recently and that seem to be automated. Accounts that are dormant for a long time and then show a sudden increase in activity may also be suspicious.

Another sign that an account is a bot is that it originates from a high-risk geographical location such as Russia, where state-sponsored bot campaigns are common. Moreover, accounts that have an irregular pattern of posting and include a smattering of hashtags, emojis, and hyper-partisan words are more likely to be inauthentic.