APAC eCommerce businesses facing major bot threats

Akamai Technologies has released a new State of the Internet (SOTI) report, highlighting significant security and business threats posed by web scraping bots.

The report, titled "Scraping Away Your Bottom Line: How Web Scrapers Impact eCommerce," finds that bots account for 42% of overall web traffic, with a troubling 65% of these bots identified as malicious.

The eCommerce sector, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, faces substantial challenges from high-risk bot traffic due to its reliance on revenue-generating web applications.

While some bots benefit businesses through activities like market research, malicious web scraper bots are increasingly used for competitive intelligence, espionage, inventory hoarding, and creating counterfeit sites. These activities can harm profitability and negatively impact customer experiences.

"Every business with an online storefront relies on web scraper bots to some extent," said Reuben Koh, Director of Security Technology & Strategy, APJ, Akamai Technologies.

"The challenge arises when these bots are misused, as their similar functions make it difficult to distinguish between beneficial and malicious ones. It is then compounded by the rapidly evolving scraper landscape which renders traditional defences like firewalls ineffective," he said.

Koh emphasised the necessity for eCommerce businesses to invest in adaptable solutions. "Now, more than ever, eCommerce businesses, especially in APJ which is a key global commerce hub, must invest in solutions that are fit for purpose, capable of adapting and keeping up with the unpredictable and iterative attacks posed by malicious bots – especially if they are looking to regionalise and expand their customer base, opening them up to further threats,” he said.

Key insights from the State of the Internet report include:

• AI botnets have the ability to discover and scrape unstructured data and content that is in a less consistent format or location. They can also use business intelligence to enhance decision-making processes through data collection and processing.
• Scraper bots can generate sophisticated phishing campaigns by using product images, descriptions, and pricing information to create counterfeit storefronts or phishing sites aimed at stealing credentials or credit card information.
• Bots can facilitate new account opening abuses, contributing to up to 50% of fraud losses.
• Technical impacts of scraping on online storefronts include website performance degradation, site metric pollution, compromised credentials attacks, increased compute costs, and more.

The "Scraping Away Your Bottom Line" report offers mitigation strategies against scraper bots and includes a case study demonstrating how websites operate more efficiently once defences against these bots are implemented. The research also addresses compliance considerations in light of increasing bot attacks.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Akamai's State of the Internet (SOTI) reports. The SOTI series offers expert insights on the cybersecurity and web performance landscapes, based on data gathered from Akamai Connected Cloud.