Netacea is proud to announce that one year on from originally completing SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, we have successfully passed our latest audit. This is an accolade we take pride in as it further demonstrates our ongoing commitment to data security and protecting our customers.

Earlier this year we stated that bot attacks can be run by anyone, from skilled individuals to organised gangs. Bots can hit websites for a number of reasons. Common attacks include credential cracking to account takeover, to scalping. These bots have the power and capability to conduct multiple attacks repeatedly. Those actions have long seen standard for bots though, so what is new in the world of bot attacks? What is making these attacks more sophisticated?

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) for defense allows for the better scanning of networks for vulnerabilities, automation, and attack detection based on existing datasets. However this is all in defense against an unknown attacker, who can have varying offensive tools all designed to overcome the most sophisticated defense. Is the biggest challenge for defensive AI that there is an offensive AI operator with unknown capabilities? And has offensive AI lowered the barrier of entry for bot attackers?

The definition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been thrown around whilst it has risen to the top of the tech agenda over the past couple of years. Security professionals have determined AI to be a risk to businesses, and also an opportunity. But could it also be a way to better defend your network against attacks? For many years, AI and Machine Learning have gone hand in hand; with AI used to better determine defensive decisions and cut down on the human element in more basic functions.

In our last blog post, we unpacked what SEO poisoning is and how it diverts organic search traffic. We examined some prevalent rank theft techniques used in SEO poisoning attacks. In this follow-up, we will dive into how automation can be used to further SEO poisoning and ranking theft attacks. With bots, adversaries can execute coordinated ranking theft at a speed and scale not possible manually.

Anti-bot solutions have been around for a long time. Firewalls and WAFs are used by all kinds of businesses to protect their online assets from malicious bots. But as bots become more sophisticated and bot traffic volumes increase, many of these measures have become outdated and ineffective. If your anti-bot system isn’t performing, it could open your site to serious data breaches and other threats like Credential stuffing attacks and online fraud.

Bots cost the average business 4.3% of online revenues every year – or $85 million for the typical enterprise – so it’s critical that businesses invest in finding the right bot protection solution. If you’re coming up against resistance within your business when seeking to procure or upgrade your bot protection capabilities, this post will give you plenty of ideas for proving why better bot management is essential – in ways that matter to everyone in your organization.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is crucial marketing tool for driving organic traffic to websites. It works on a simple premise that users trust top search results are the most relevant to their needs. In general, we will feel much more confident digesting content or buying products or services from top search engine results.

For years Netacea has been reporting on the evolving scalper bot landscape. From the early days of sneaker bots, through to hobbyists snatching PlayStation 5 consoles and even vaccine appointments throughout the pandemic, we’ve closely monitored what items scalpers target. Now, a whole new breed of scalper bot has emerged – one that exploits discounts and pricing errors instead of exclusive hype drops, costing retailers hundreds of thousands in lost inventory.