What is a bot?
So, what is a bot anyway? Personally, I think it’s an overused, often misunderstood and mostly useless term.
Technically I guess a bot “runs automated tasks by executing scripts over the internet”?
But that’s really only telling half the story. It only tells you what it is technically, but we really care about it’s purpose. The true focus should be on why there is a human that actually bothered to build this bot.
Humans, code and an ecosystem
A better definition: “A bot is a combination of technologies that humans use to automate interactions with applications”. But it is more than that. The human characteristics need to be considered in more detail: the technical skills, the motivation/intent, the reward/result.
Why are these people doing this? Let’s take two examples at polar opposite ends of the spectrum:
- Google crawler (a good bot) that has changed the way we use the internet and consume knowledge .
- The “enumeration attack” against the Australian PayID platform (a very bad bot).
Two different pieces of automation, two very different human motives.
Good bots, bad bots, I’m not sure bots.
Good bots: Automation plays a huge role in our daily lives. Google, Siri and Alexa are great examples of software tools automating processes that improve our daily lives.
Side note: Stop reading this blog right now and try asking Siri if she is lonely. Bots can also be humourous! 😁🤖
But not all bots are good. Just like in the real world, bad people leverage technology to achieve bad things. There are well established tools and ecosystems to help bad people achieve their nefarious actions. Validating stolen credit cards, validating stolen user credentials, e-commerce fraud, checkout fraud, fake account creation or even denial of service. The options are only limited by a fraudsters’ creativity, access to tech skills and funding.
