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The Internet in 2025: Over 50% of Traffic Now Automated

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By Tom Grant
3 min read
The Internet in 2025: Over 50% of Traffic Now Automated

TL;DR

  • Over 50% of internet traffic is now automated, driven largely by bots.
  • The rise in bad bots poses significant cybersecurity threats, including account takeovers and data scraping.
  • Users can protect themselves by using unique passwords, installing anti-malware software, and securing their IP addresses.

The Internet in 2025: Over 50% of Traffic Now Automated

If you’ve noticed that the internet feels different, you’re not alone. Recent research reveals that a significant portion of internet traffic is no longer human. Bots, automated software programs interacting with websites, have become ubiquitous. According to the 2025 Bad Bot Report by Imperva, an application security company, this marks the first time that bot traffic has surpassed human traffic.

The Rise of Generative AI and Bots

The surge in bot activity is attributed to advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI). This technology has made it easier to create bots for various online tasks, from flirting on dating apps1 to drafting heartfelt emails on behalf of administrators2. While some bots are benign, others have malicious intentions.

The Surge of Bad Bots

“Bad bots,” those created with harmful intent, first outnumbered good bots in 2016. By 2024, bad bots accounted for 37% of internet traffic, up from 32% the previous year. In contrast, good bots made up only 14% of the traffic.

Malicious Activities by Bad Bots

Bad bots engage in a variety of harmful activities:

  • Credential Stuffing: Using stolen passwords and email addresses to hijack online accounts. Account takeover attacks surged to 330,000 incidents in December 2024, up from 190,000 a year earlier, likely due to an influx of data breaches.
  • Data Scraping: Extracting data from websites, which can lead to intellectual property theft and privacy invasions.
  • Payment Fraud: Exploiting vulnerabilities in checkout systems to commit fraud.
  • Scalping: Buying high-demand items like event tickets and sneakers for resale, denying legitimate customers access.

Industry-Specific Targets

Bad bots are targeting specific sectors:

  • Travel Industry: Accounted for 27% of bad bot traffic in 2024, up from 21% in 2023. Bots manipulate seat pricing by pretending to book and then abandoning purchases.
  • Retail: The second hardest-hit industry, with 15% of bot traffic.
  • Education: Accounted for 11% of bot traffic.

Evolving Bot Tactics

Bots are becoming more sophisticated in evading detection:

  • Browser Identity Faking: Masking as legitimate browsers like Chrome or Firefox.
  • Residential IP Addresses: Using IP addresses owned by residential users, making them harder to spot.
  • Virtual Private Networks (VPNs): Cloaking their origin.
  • CAPTCHA Cracking: AI-enabled bots are improving at solving CAPTCHAs, tests designed to verify human users.
  • API Communication: Newer bots communicate directly with servers using application programming interfaces (APIs), bypassing traditional web interactions.

Protecting Yourself from Bad Bots

While fighting bad bots is primarily the responsibility of web application operators, individuals can take steps to protect themselves:

  • Unique Passwords: Use different, complex passwords for each service and a trusted password manager to avoid credential stuffing and brute-force attacks.
  • Anti-Malware Software: Install and maintain anti-malware software to prevent attackers from compromising your machine.
  • Secure Your IP Address: Avoid untrusted VPNs and update your home router to prevent attackers from using your IP address for bot activities.

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them.

Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

Additional Resources

For further insights, check:

References

  1. The Guardian (2025). “AI wingmen: Bots to write profiles and flirt on dating apps”. The Guardian. Retrieved 2025-04-16. ↩︎

  2. CBS News (2025). “Vanderbilt apology: ChatGPT-generated message on MSU shooting”. CBS News. Retrieved 2025-04-16. ↩︎

Cybersecurity & Data Protection, Cybersecurity
cybersecurity automated traffic bot activity
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.