Two thirds (66%) of UK firms are defenceless against straightforward bot assaults, according to the UK Bot Security Report from DataDome.
Security experts draw attention to the risky position that this puts UK firms in given the rising threat of automated cyber attacks.
A variety of businesses, including banking, ticketing, e-commerce, and gaming, were evaluated by the security vendor's BotTester tool, which it used to test over 2400 of the most popular sites in the nation.
Only 8% of bot requests were successfully mitigated, with more than 69% of all bot kinds being allowed to proceed, based on the research. DataDome reported that over a quarter (23%) of people found at least some of the bots.
E-commerce and classified ads had the worst performance, passing all nine bot tests while allowing over 70% of malicious bot traffic. The best-defended websites, on the other hand, were those that offered gambling, with 29% of them successfully banning all bot types generated by the BotTester software.
Fake Chrome bots, which got past 90% of tested sites' defences, were BotTester's most effective malicious bots.
Antoine Vastel, the head of research at DataDome, said that UK businesses are simply unprepared for the potentially serious financial and reputational harm that bad bots can do.
“From ticket scalping and inventory hoarding, to account fraud, bad bots wreak chaos on consumers and businesses alike,” Vastel stated. “Businesses which do not deal adeptly with bad bots risk significant reputational damage, as well as exposing their customers to unnecessary risk. They must act now to protect themselves against this growing threat.”
According to Imperva, malicious bots currently account for 30% of all internet traffic, a figure that is steadily growing.
More advanced bots now make up the majority of fraudulent traffic, costing multinational organisations billions of dollars annually. These are more difficult to detect since they are made to look like real human behaviour.