The 2024 Imperva Threat Research report states that non-human sources or bots are accountable for almost half of all web traffic.
The “Dead Internet Theory” began as a conspiracy theory published on 4chan in 2019, but is gaining credibility with the proliferation of AI-powered bots.
The theory is predicated on two claims: that the majority Internet traffic is generated mechanically and that this is finished intentionally to control human online activity.
The latest report from cybersecurity company Imperva appears to substantiate the primary claim, with bots accounting for 49.6% of web traffic in 2023.
Not all bots are bad. We depend on web crawlers like Google's bot to index web sites for its search platform. ChatGPT is predicated on data collected from the Internet OpenAIis bot. Whether it will possibly be classified nearly as good or bad continues to be being discussed.
Bad bots are automated web agents that malicious actors use to commit fraud, data collection, or other malicious activities. According to Imperva's report, 32% of all web traffic is malicious bot activity.
Advances in AI are leading the technology to maneuver beyond the constraints of the chat interface and tackle broader roles as AI agents. These AI agents are capable of interact with web sites to perform helpful tasks that humans would normally need to do.
They may allow malicious bots to mimic human movements and mouse clicks to spoof bot detection. Many of those bots are able to completing the increasingly relevant CAPTCHA “Prove you’re human” challenges.
🤖 49.6% of all web traffic in 2023 was non-human, with malicious bot traffic reaching the best level we’ve ever observed.
Swipe for key insights from the eleventh Annual Imperva Bad Bot Report or download a replica to learn the way automated threats could impact your small business.
— Imperva, a Thales company (@Imperva) April 16, 2024
AI makes it easier
The report found a rise in each advanced and simpler malicious bots. Commenting on the increasing malicious bot traffic, the report said: “Malicious bot traffic has increased for the fifth consecutive yr, indicating an alarming trend.”
The report concludes that this increase is not less than partly as a result of the increasing popularity of AI and LLMs. Access to AI tools lowers the barrier for malicious actors who previously lacked the talents to create malicious bots.
The report states: “Increasing adoption of AI technology is impacting the quantity of malicious bots on the web and their sophistication. A transparent disconnect emerged between sophisticated actors who’ve the means and resources to deploy advanced malicious bots and those that depend on basic tools similar to querying AI to create a bot script.”
The result’s that easy malicious bots accounted for 39.6% of total malicious bot traffic in 2023, in comparison with 33.4% in 2022 and 26.3% five years ago.
Imperva's report states that APIs are a preferred goal for malicious bots. As more firms use APIs to access AI models for his or her chatbots, enterprise AI solutions, or AI agents, the danger of malicious bots exploiting these tools will only increase.
There are human actors behind these automated malicious bots. They might not be the globalist cabal that the authors of the dead web theory imagined, but they need to take advantage of and manipulate people.
Automated content will overtake human-generated content with AI-generated music, YouTube videos, and AI influencers. We even see AI social media accounts interacting with other AI-generated content and accounts.
Wikipedia still calls the dead Internet theory a “conspiracy theory.” It could have began as such, however it is quickly becoming an AI-powered reality.
