Report: Bad Bots sent One in Five Web Requests in 2018

Distil Networks' 2019 Bad Bot Report finds that bad bots generated 20.4% of web traffic in 2018, with 73.6% classified as advanced persistent bots (APBs) that employ human-like behaviors and evasion (random IPs, proxies, user-agent changes). Financial services were heavily targeted (42.2% bot traffic), and other sectors such as education, government, and gambling also saw increased activity; recommendations include blocking outdated user agents, CAPTCHA, blocking proxies/hosting providers, monitoring traffic sources and failed logins, and protecting APIs and mobile apps.