Humans and bots went head to head again this year to compete for the best deals the holiday season had to offer. Surprisingly, October emerged as the star of Kasada’s annual 2023 Holiday Bad Bot Report, as adversaries meticulously prepared for November’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Despite booming early bird sales in October, “Cyber Five” Weekend, which represents Thanksgiving in the United States through Cyber Monday, still had some interesting insights of their own.
Key findings from the 2023 Holiday Bad Bot Report
- Bots were early to holiday sales: Peak bot traffic occurred in the days leading up to Black Friday on Thanksgiving and the day before Thanksgiving due to preparation for their attacks on peak sales days.
- Humans preferred to shop on Black Friday: Black Friday saw 12% more online traffic than Cyber Monday. Peak traffic on Black Friday was 40% higher than the previous Friday, and bot traffic was 110% higher.
- Scalping and login fraud were common bot attacks during Cyber Five: Automated login requests increased by 251% from Saturday, November 25th to Sunday, November 26th, and peaked on Cyber Monday. More than half of all bot requests came from scalpers, culminating the night before Thanksgiving.
Peak Botting Activity: Wednesday, November 22
Move over, Black Friday and Cyber Monday – it turns out bots had their own favorite day during the Cyber Five shopping week. Wednesday, the day preceding Thanksgiving, emerged as the unlikely target, witnessing the peak of bot activity. A staggering 63% of bot requests had one thing in mind – scalping. Given the high levels of these Grinch bots, we suspect adversaries were attempting to take advantage of early holiday sales and exclusive member-only deals before they were available to the general public.
