Bots Definitions
Bot-related definitions covering botnets, web crawlers, data scraping, click fraud, spam bots, and bot traffic management.
What is a bot attack?
A bot attack is a cyberattack carried out by automated software programs that target websites, applications, and APIs to exploit vulnerabilities, steal data, or disrupt services at scale.
What is a botnet?
A botnet is a network of compromised computers controlled remotely by an attacker, often used to launch large-scale cyberattacks such as DDoS assaults, spam campaigns, and credential stuffing.
What is a chat bot?
A chatbot is an automated software application that simulates human conversation through text or voice interactions, used for customer service, lead generation, and user engagement on websites.
What is a spam bot?
A spam bot is an automated program designed to send or post unsolicited messages in bulk, targeting email inboxes, website comment sections, contact forms, and social media platforms.
What is a web crawler?
A web crawler is an automated bot that systematically browses the internet to discover, index, and catalog web pages, primarily used by search engines to build and update their search indexes.
What is bot traffic?
Bot traffic refers to any non-human visitors to a website, including both beneficial bots like search engine crawlers and harmful bots that scrape content, attempt attacks, or inflate analytics data.
What is click fraud?
Click fraud is the practice of using bots or automated scripts to generate fake clicks on pay-per-click advertisements, costing advertisers money without delivering genuine user engagement.
What is data scraping?
Data scraping is the automated process of extracting information from websites or applications, often performed by bots that collect large amounts of data without manual intervention.