Cyber security vendor, Imperva, has unveiled its 2024 Bad Bot Report, revealing that nearly half of all global internet traffic in 2023 originated from bots, marking the highest level reported by Imperva since it began monitoring automated traffic in 2013.

The report, which provides a comprehensive global analysis of automated bot traffic across the internet, reveals a number of key trends including a global average increase in malicious bot traffic to 32%. Conversely, human user traffic decreased to 50.4% in 2023.

Australia remains a prime target for malicious bots, accounting for 8.4% of all attacks globally, behind the USA and the Netherlands. Bots, both good and bad, now constitute 36.4% of Australia’s total internet traffic. Australia’s malicious bot traffic grew to 30.2% in 2023, marking a year-on-year increase of 23.2%.

Other trends highlighted include a growing use of generative AI connected to the rise in simple bots; the gaming industry continuing to experience the highest levels of bad bot traffic; persistent business risk from account takeover; APIs becoming a popular vector for attack; and residential ISPs seeing a rise in bad bot traffic to 25.8%.

In Australia, the industries with the highest proportion of simple bot traffic are Business (88%), Retail (87%), and Lifestyle (82%). The industries that experienced the highest volume of Automated Threats to Online (ATO) attacks in 2023 were Financial Services (36.8%), Travel (11.5%), and Business Services (8%). Automated threats accounted for a significant proportion (30%) of API attacks globally in 2023.

Imperva Director of Technology, Asia Pacific and Japan, Reinhart Hansen, said: "With attackers increasingly exploiting API vulnerabilities and lapses in business logic guardrails, a proactive stance is essential to prevent data breaches, account takeovers, and large-scale data theft. 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 forcing more investment in infrastructure and customer support. Organisations in Australia 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."

Imperva Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific and Japan, George Lee, said that organisations are facing financial losses every year due to automated traffic. "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. It's imperative for enterprises to prioritise investment in bot management and API security solutions to effectively combat the threat posed by malicious automated traffic."

Imperva was acquired by defence and aerospace company, Thales, in 2023.