Nefarious activity is on the increase for both web and mobile platforms, according to the latest Global Bot Traffic Market Advisory from internet solution provider, Solve Media.
Bots can infiltrate web, video and mobile traffic to such an extent that they cause advertisers to shell out on impressions, views and clicks that are not being engaged with by genuine web users.
Solve Media, best known for its Captcha technology, says that these malicious bots undermine the security of the web and generally make a nuisance of themselves by stealing publisher content, phishing and creating spam assets.
In the UK, suspicious web activity has risen to 44%, whereas it topped out at 32% on mobile. Meanwhile the Ukraine is said to be one of three countries with the highest levels of online shadiness when it comes to display advertising, along with China and Venezuela.
Financial Loss
Internationally, dubious traffic increased from 43% to 46% for web advertising and 29% to 35% for mobile. It means that the global digital advertising industry is set to waste up to £6 billion in 2013 advertising to bots, when taking into account ZenithOptimedia’s forecast.
Adam J. O’Donnell, one of Solve Media’s security council members and chief architect of the Cloud Technology Group at Sourcefire, advises that protecting the web’s publishers will become vital
“Analysis has shown that bot traffic affecting the online advertising ecosystem has grown from 10% to at least 24% in less than a year,” O’Donnell said. “Protecting website publishers from automated submissions, spam, attacks, and other types of fraudulent activity must become a crucial industry priority.”
“Through the application of big security data, effective solutions are emerging in this fight and publishers concerned with security are likely to embrace them.”