How Bots Exploit Seasonal Bot Traffic to Bypass Defenses

The battle between bots and anti-bot tools is a relentless arms race. Bot operators constantly develop new ways to outsmart defenses, and defenders adapt to counter those tactics. As one side evolves, the other quickly follows suit.

This ongoing conflict has grown more intricate over the years. Initially, bots mimicked traits like browsers, IPs, user agents, and mouse and keyboard inputs used by human visitors. These tricks sufficed to bypass primitive defenses. However, early bot management solutions focused on dissecting these signals, identifying the spoofed from the legitimate.

In 2018, Netacea changed the game. Instead of just analyzing technical traits, we started examining intent. We looked at each request in the context of overall behavior. This approach made it harder for bots to hide within normal traffic. To remain undetected, bots now had to mimic not only one user’s traits but the collective behavior of entire groups of real visitors.

In this post, we’ll dive into how bots exploit seasonal bot traffic patterns to evade detection, explore their broader evasion tactics, and share a comical bot blunder we encountered. Finally, we’ll explain how Netacea outsmarts even the most sophisticated bots.

How Bots Mimic Seasonal Bot Traffic

Bots aim to blend in with genuine traffic, and understanding seasonal bot traffic is a critical part of their strategy. Seasonal traffic refers to periods of increased activity, such as holiday shopping spikes, major sales like Black Friday, or the launch of a hot new product. Bots know these are prime times to strike.

Timing Their Attacks with Peak Traffic

Sophisticated bots avoid launching attacks during quiet times, like the early morning hours. Spikes in activity during these periods stick out in traffic logs, alerting defenders to suspicious behavior.

Instead, bots synchronize their attacks with expected busy periods. For example, eCommerce websites typically see traffic ramping up around 7 a.m., peaking in the evening. Bots exploit these times to execute scalping, scraping, or account takeover attacks.

Hiding in Seasonal Spikes

During major events like Black Friday, bots become even bolder. With so much legitimate traffic, their malicious activity is harder to detect. They target limited-edition products, high-demand inventory, or critical data, blending into the noise of genuine visitors.

Other Evasion Tactics Used by Bots

While exploiting seasonal bot traffic is a favorite tactic, bots use a range of tricks to stay under the radar:

Rate Limiting and Randomization

Automated bots can execute actions at lightning speed. For instance, they might scrape data from multiple pages in seconds or complete hundreds of checkout attempts in the blink of an eye.

This speed is efficient but conspicuous. Defenders spot it easily in server logs. To counter this, smarter bots randomize their patterns, staggering requests and avoiding detection thresholds. These tactics help bots appear less automated and more human.

Authentic Site Navigation

Many bots operate with ruthless efficiency, skipping steps that a human user would take. For example, instead of browsing categories and adding items to a cart, a bot might jump straight to checkout.

While this approach is effective, it’s also obvious. Clever bots simulate human browsing behavior, visiting the homepage, navigating through categories, and even pausing on pages to mimic real engagement. Netacea’s machine learning algorithms analyze these journeys, flagging bots that try to mimic human-like activity.

IP Rotation and Residential Proxies

Bots rely on infrastructure to host their requests. When defenders block this infrastructure (e.g., by blacklisting IPs), bot operators adapt.

They rotate IP addresses to spread their activity, ensuring no single IP sends too many requests. Additionally, they use residential proxies – real IPs associated with homes. These are harder to block without risking legitimate users. This tactic makes detecting bots more challenging but not impossible for advanced solutions like Netacea.

When Bots Fail at Seasonal Traffic Mimicry

Even the most sophisticated bots can stumble, as we recently witnessed at Netacea.

One group of attackers tried to mimic seasonal bot traffic while scraping data for a retail client. Typically, bots follow a 24-hour cycle, replicating the natural ebb and flow of human behavior. This group, however, decided to get creative – or maybe just astronomically confused.

Instead of sticking to the Earth’s standard day, they followed a rolling 16-hour cycle. It’s as if they assumed the website catered to residents of Neptune, where days last about 16 Earth hours. While this scheduling might have impressed extraterrestrial shoppers, it made the attack hilariously easy to spot and block.

This blunder reinforced a crucial point: even when bots try to exploit seasonal bot traffic, mistakes can give them away. Of course, Netacea remains ready to handle even the most “out-of-this-world” threats.

How Netacea Detects Bots in Seasonal Bot Traffic

Detecting bots hidden in seasonal bot traffic requires more than basic rules or thresholds. It demands sophisticated tools capable of analyzing intent and behavior across massive datasets.

Netacea’s Intent Analytics engine leverages machine learning to detect bots with unparalleled accuracy. We analyze behavioral signals across all requests, whether from websites, mobile apps, or APIs.

Cross-Referencing Signals

By enriching and cross-referencing thousands of signals across trillions of requests each year, our system distinguishes bots from real users. This includes identifying patterns that match known attack behaviors and uncovering anomalies in traffic.

Exceptional Accuracy

Netacea’s detection capabilities result in a false positive rate of just 0.001%. That means legitimate users can shop, browse, or interact with your site without unnecessary blocks. Meanwhile, our solution detects over 30x more attacks than traditional anti-bot tools.

Designed for Complex Scenarios

Whether bots hide in peak seasonal traffic or deploy advanced evasion tactics, Netacea remains one step ahead. Our machine learning models constantly evolve, adapting to new threats and ensuring your business stays protected.

Protect Your Business from Seasonal Bot Traffic

Seasonal bot traffic poses unique challenges, but with the right tools, businesses can defend themselves effectively. Netacea specializes in identifying and mitigating bot threats, even during high-traffic events like Black Friday or major product launches.

Don’t let bots hijack your seasonal traffic. Sign up for a demo of Netacea today and uncover which bots are targeting your business.