What is AI bot traffic?
AI bots are programs that automatically visit websites to collect data, train AI models, or sometimes look for vulnerabilities. While not all bots are harmful, many ignore website rules (like robots.txt) and place unnecessary load on servers.
A real and growing issue
We’ve observed a significant rise in bot traffic, particularly from regions like Brazil and Singapore. Some of our clients have experienced HTTP flood attacks, where massive amounts of traffic are deliberately sent to overload servers.
A clear example of the issue is Wikipedia, which recently reported that AI bots are "devouring" their content to train models. This has led to increased bandwidth costs and technical complications (read more in PCMag).
Our solution: Cloudflare
To counter this, we’ve implemented Cloudflare CDN and security services on our clients’ websites. Cloudflare offers:
- DDoS protection – prevents your website from going down due to heavy attacks.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) – blocks intrusion attempts and other threats.
- Bot protection – detects and blocks malicious automated traffic.
- Faster load times through a global network of cache servers.
For clients whose DNS is managed by us, we have already migrated to Cloudflare – without requiring any action on their part. Our goal is to let you focus on your business while we handle security and performance.
Our advice: Take cybersecurity seriously
Cyber threats no longer only affect large corporations. Smaller websites and online shops are also at risk of automated attacks. We recommend that all site owners review their protection setup and consult their service provider.
Want to learn more about how we work with web and IT security? Feel free to contact us – we’re happy to help!