Real people are a minority on the internet: bots now account for 53% of traffic

So-called «bad bots» currently devour almost 40% of all global traffic on the internet.

The internet is a space whose foundations were originally laid by real people. However, these internet builders have paradoxically become a minority in the depths of the web, where the proportion of automated interactions has skyrocketed (and is being further fueled by bots with malicious intent, ultimately dedicated to crime).

According to a recent report by the French technology group Thales, bots are currently responsible for 53% of global internet traffic. A year ago, this proportion was slightly lower at 51%. While bots are already a major problem for the internet, this problem has only worsened because many of the bots currently roaming freely online harbor clearly malicious intentions.

If the figures from Thales are correct, real people would now account for only 47% of online traffic. Websites like Wikipedia are already experiencing firsthand the decline in human traffic to their domains. Since ChatGPT emerged in late 2022, the pages of the famous online encyclopedia are increasingly visited by bots and less by real people. The proportion of human traffic on Wikipedia has plummeted by 8% in just one year.

Behind this decline in human traffic on the internet are largely the changes in how internet users obtain information online. Chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini are largely replacing traditional search engines, and Google is also delighting users with AI-generated summaries through «AI Overviews.» However, not all the bots that swarm the internet are collectors of truly useful information, and many, in fact, have criminal intentions. So-called «bad bots» currently devour almost 40% of all global internet traffic. And according to Thales, bot attacks increased twelvefold in the last year.

The proportion of malicious bots on the internet is skyrocketing.

Modern bots are not limited to malicious activities such as credential stuffing or price scraping. AI has transformed them into incredibly sophisticated systems capable of mimicking human behavior with astonishing accuracy. Approximately 27% of malicious bot activity is specifically directed at APIs. By bypassing traditional user interfaces, bots can interact directly with backend systems, exploit the logic behind business operations, and ultimately manipulate processes. 46% of accounts compromised online last year were victims of these types of attacks.

“AI is transforming automation into something that companies must necessarily manage,” explains Tim Chang, Global Vice President & General Manager of Application Security at Thales. “The challenge is no longer about identifying bots. It’s about understanding what the bot, agent, or automation is doing, whether that aligns with business intent, and how it interacts with critical systems,” he adds.

The report commissioned by Thales reveals that traditional security methods (focused on identifying and subsequently blocking bots) have become irrelevant in a context where automation is ubiquitous and often perfectly legitimate. Thales recommends that companies adopt a governance-based approach that combines transparency, policy enforcement, and behavioral analysis. This involves defining which AI agents can interact with specific systems, implementing API controls, and developing protection mechanisms that keep pace with the rapid evolution of bots.

Source: www.marketingdirecto.com