In today’s world, having an informative website is essential for any business that wants to attract customers successfully.
This is why website accessibility is critical for any business that wants to ensure all its users can use the website and that nobody is excluded.
Unfortunately, having an online presence, especially a website, doesn’t only attract potential customers but also malicious actors that want to exploit it for their benefit.
They are constantly coming up with new types of attacks, and recently bot attacks have become a growing concern for website owners and users alike.
Successful bot attacks can significantly impact the performance of your website, especially its accessibility.
This is why it is essential to detect and mitigate bot attacks before they damage your business and put a dent in your relationship with customers.
What are bot attacks, and how do they impact website accessibility?
The truth is that there is no bad or good bot; their programming is what determines their purpose. Bot attacks happen when hackers program bots to access a website with malicious intent.
That can be to steal sensitive information, spam users, launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, scrape website content or even generate fake user accounts and cause other types of damage.
P.C: PIXABAY
Not only are they programmed to mimic human behavior, but they are also becoming more sophisticated, making them harder to detect and stop before causing damage.
While every bot attack causes a significant issue for a website, the ones impacting website performance and accessibility usually have additional long-term consequences.
For example, during DDoS attacks, bots overwhelm a website with massive traffic, flooding the server and causing the website to crash.
During a scraping attack, bots collect data hackers can use for their malicious purposes. This can significantly slow down the website, making it difficult for legitimate users to access content.
Bots can even target website features needed for users with disabilities, such as screen readers or keyboard navigation. This will make it almost impossible for users with disabilities to use the site.
According to Cozmoslabs, no matter what type of site you’re running, there are some tried-and-true tactics that you can apply to stop spam registrations in their tracks, and they’re all available in one single plugin.
All these types of bot attacks impact user experience. Not only will this result in frustrated users and a decrease in their engagement leading to loss of revenue, but it can also significantly damage the reputation.
How to prevent bots from impacting your website?
Detecting bot attacks can be challenging as they can mimic human behavior and trick traditional bot detection methods like CAPTCHA tests.
To put an end to it, website owners must stay up to date with the newest cybersecurity trends and implement more advanced bot detection and prevention methods.
For example, SEON uses techniques such as machine learning and real-time monitoring to identify and block malicious bots.
These methods allow you to determine patterns of behavior that indicate bot attacks, allowing website owners to take action quickly.
Ensure your website is not left unprotected, and follow the next steps to protect it from bot attacks.
1. Conduct regular website testing
This can help you find areas that require improvement and identify potential vulnerabilities bots may target.
By addressing these vulnerabilities sooner rather than later, website owners can minimize the impact of bot attacks.
2. Implement advanced security measures
Having robust security measures is essential for any company with an online presence as they can prevent bots from accessing the website and block the attack before it even happens.
They work by gathering all relevant information, determining the patterns of standard user behavior, and identifying suspicious activity.
Even Amazon deals with bot attacks, but because of their DDoS protection service, Amazon prevented even the largest ever DDoS cyber-attack.
3. Keep software up to date
Bots often try to find an easy way into your website by exploiting any vulnerabilities that are left unpatched. It is essential every element of your website is kept up to date.
Software updates not only improve website performance but also regularly come with patches that fix bugs and security vulnerabilities, preventing malicious actors from exploiting them.
4. Add additional security layers to your website
You can improve your website security by introducing additional steps such as multi-factor authentication or a strong password policy.
While these steps might seem simple, the truth is that they can do wonders for preventing unauthorized access to your website, as Bluehost mentioned.
For example, bots might try to use the most common passwords to access users’ accounts. If you introduce a password policy that requires users to create complex and unique passwords, they will be unsuccessful when attempting this type of attack on your website.
5. Use CAPTCHAs
CAPTCHAs, such as Google’s reCAPTCHA, are another simple but effective way that prevents bot traffic from accessing your website.
By asking users to identify certain objects, enter a code, or solve a puzzle, they can distinguish between human users and bots and ensure that the traffic to your website is human-generated.
With bots becoming more sophisticated, CAPTCHAs are no longer enough to protect your websites alone. Luckily, when combined with other methods mentioned above, they can successfully mitigate the dangers of bots accessing your website.
To ensure that no legitimate customers are excluded from using your website, you should look into accessible CAPTCHA alternatives, such as audio CAPTCHAs.
Quick Links:
- How to Use Your Own Custom Domain with Gmail for Free
- How to Write a Great Cyber Security Resume
- How to Become a Cybersecurity Analyst
Conclusion: Impact of Bot Attacks on Website Accessibility
Bot attacks can significantly impact website performance and accessibility, which can have long-term consequences, from financial loss to reputational damage.
Website owners can no longer afford to be passive; instead, they must start taking proactive steps to identify and prevent bot attacks before they can cause any damage.
