Bot attacks and security concerns were analyzed in a recent report by Kasada. The report found that 98% of organizations attacked by bots in the past year lost revenue as a result. Web scraping (web crawling) is a major threat followed closely by account fraud, with more than one third of IT/IS specialists reporting their organizations experienced over 5% revenue loss as a result of each.

The report found that 67% of technology companies are currently using CDN-based bot detection. 30% say their organization has spent $1,000,000 or more on mitigating bot attacks over the past year. Despite these expenditures, traditional bot mitigation solutions are falling short. Just one in five say that after initial deployment their bot mitigation solution(s) retained effectiveness for more than 12 months. So it’s not surprising that 79% say they are likely to switch bot mitigation providers based on their detection and efficacy.

The report highlights the following trends:

  • Leaders are very worried about AI-fueled fraud and automated threats.
  • 87% of IT/IS specialists say their executive team is concerned about bot attacks and AI-driven fraud.

Many IT/IS specialists are concerned about AI fueling more complex and more frequent bot attacks. The following AI-driven security threat scenarios are the most concerning:

  • Generative AI enabling criminal attackers to pull off complex attacks with more ease.
  • Sophisticated bots’ developing the ability to easily bypass CAPTCHAs.
  • Increased frequency of advanced attacks that could cause a major disruption to their organization.
  • Most IT leaders are worried about CAPTCHA ineffectiveness, yet businesses continue to rely on them.
  • More than half (57%) of IT/IS specialists say sophisticated bots developing the ability to easily bypass CAPTCHAs is a major concern.
  • Nearly three quarters (73%) of IT/IS specialists say they believe the customer experience on websites would be improved by the elimination of CAPTCHAs.

Web scraping is amongst the most costly automated threats to businesses. Among IT/IS specialists who report that their company experienced a bot attack in the past 12 months:

  • 37% report their organization has lost more than 5% of revenue as a result of web scraping.
  • 34% report their organization has lost more than 5% of revenue due to account fraud.
  • 26% report their organization has lost more than 5% of revenue due to SMS pumping / toll fraud.