New survey data shows the rise and financial impact of malicious bots on businesses

SAN FRANCISCO, August 27, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fastly, Inc. (NYSE: FSLY), a leader in global edge cloud platforms, today released the results of its new survey, “Bot Wars: How Bad Bots Are Hurting Businesses,” which found that 59% of IT professionals reported an increase in bot attacks in the past year, with major incidents costing organizations an average of $2.9 million.

“Bots are a double-edged sword: They can streamline tasks, but in the wrong hands they become powerful tools for cybercrime, costing companies millions and undermining customer trust,” said Daniel Corbett, Security Product Manager at Fastly. “Our new study reveals the impact and scale of these attacks and underscores the urgent need for robust bot defenses in organizations.”

More than three-quarters (76%) of respondents from companies across a wide range of industries, including financial services, retail, IT and telecoms, experienced at least one bot attack in the past year, with 43% experiencing multiple bot attacks. Respondents experienced a range of bot attacks, including malware distribution, click fraud and DDoS attacks. In fact, 91% of respondents believe automated bot attacks are now “the norm for e-commerce businesses.”

The key findings of the survey include:

• The most commonly reported threat was malware distribution bots, affecting 49% of organizations, followed by web scrapers and click fraud bots (44%), DDoS bots and spam bots (41%).

• While 73% of technical staff who deal with security incidents on a daily basis have observed an increase in bot attacks in the past year, only 53% of executives believe the number of bot attacks in their organizations is increasing.

• Respondents’ organizations were most concerned about data breaches (48%), financial losses (41%), and business/service disruptions (39%) as a result of bot attacks.

• 47% of respondents believe their company could be better prepared for a bot attack

In addition, the survey examined the potential use of AI by attackers to accelerate bot attacks: 45 percent of survey respondents believed that AI would significantly increase the number of bot attacks, while 27 percent think it would increase the severity of bot attacks.

For more information on how bad bots impact businesses and steps to mitigate bot attacks, visit https://www.fastly.com/blog/bot-wars-how-bad-bots-hurting-businesses.

About Bot Wars: How bad bots hurt companies

The survey was conducted online by independent market research institute Vanson Bourne on behalf of Fastly. 500 IT and security decision-makers in the US and UK from companies with at least 250 employees were surveyed. The survey was conducted between April 10 and 18, 2024.

The story continues

About Fastly, Inc.

Fastly’s powerful and programmable edge cloud platform helps the world’s leading brands deliver fast, secure and engaging online experiences through edge computing, delivery, security and observability offerings that improve site performance, increase security and enable innovation on a global scale. Compared to competitors, Fastly’s powerful, high-performance and modern platform architecture enables developers to deliver secure websites and apps with fast time to market and proven industry-leading cost savings. Organizations around the world trust Fastly to help them improve the internet experience, including Reddit, Neiman Marcus, Universal Music Group and SeatGeek. Learn more about Fastly at https://www.fastly.com and follow us at @fastly.

Source: Fastly, Inc.

View original version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240827037453/en/

Contacts

Media contact
Spring Harris
[email protected]

Contact for investors
Vernon Essi, Jr.
[email protected]