Bots surf the web more than humans
Bots are generating more Internet traffic than humans, according to a new report by content delivery network, Incapsula.
Humans, who foolishly believe they are the apex beings online, only drive 38.5% of all traffic online, Incapsula’s data showed, while “non-humans” or bots, both friendly and malicious – drive the remaining 61.5%.
This is an increase of 21% since 2012, when the split between human and non-human traffic drive was almost even at 49% and 51%, respectively.
“The bulk of [this] growth is attributed to increased visits by good bots (i.e., certified agents of legitimate software, such as search engines) whose presence increased from 20% to 31% in 2013,” Incapsula said.
The company noted, however, that 31% of bots are still malicious, though spammer bot numbers have decreased.
Bots take the form of data scrapers, hacking tools, spammers and impersonators.
Incapsula said that it defines traffic in terms of site visitors, not bandwidth or connections.
For the purpose of its report, the company observed 1.45 billion visits, which occurred over a 90 day period.
The data was collected from a group of 20,000 sites on Incapsula’s network, covering all of the world’s 249 countries.
Incapsula bot traffic report 2013
More on the Internet
South Africa’s unclaimed internet billions
Loading ...