Good and bad bots comprise over 40% of internet traffic in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, increasing 15.6% year-on-year, according to the 2024 Imperva Bad Bot Report by Imperva. Nearly half (49.6%) of the global internet traffic came from bots in 2023, increasing 2% from last year and the highest since 2013.
"Organisations face substantial financial losses every year due to automated traffic, a concern that cuts across all industries. Automated bots are on track to outnumber human-generated internet traffic, and with the proliferation of AI-powered tools, their presence is becoming increasingly pervasive,” George Lee, senior vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan at Imperva, said.
Imperva Bad Bot Report
In the Asia Pacific region, Singapore experienced a high level of bad bot traffic at 35.2%, surpassing the global average of 32%. Japan recorded the lowest level of bad bot traffic at 17.7%.
The growing use of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) led to the rise in simple bots to 39.6% in 2023, up from 33.4% in 2022.
Bot management
Lee highlights the importance of prioritising investment in bot management and API security solutions to repel malicious automated traffic threats.
“From simple web scraping to malicious account takeover, spam, and denial of service, bots negatively impact an organisation’s bottom line by degrading online services and requiring more investment in infrastructure and customer support. Organisations must proactively confront the menace of bad bots as attackers sharpen their focus on API-related abuses that can lead to compromised accounts and data exfiltration,” said Reinhart Hansen, director of Technology at the Office of the CTO of Imperva.