The most common use of a bot is to automate repetitive tasks over a network, enabling them to perform these operations much faster and more efficiently than human users could. This widespread automation accounts for more than half of all internet traffic, encompassing a wide range of activities from beneficial web operations to malicious exploits.
The Core Function: Automation and Speed
Bots are fundamentally designed for automation, allowing them to execute tasks with incredible speed and without human intervention. This capability makes them invaluable for processes that require high volume, constant operation, or rapid data processing. Operating primarily over networks, bots can simultaneously interact with numerous systems or vast amounts of data.
Common activities performed by bots include:
- Scanning content: Web crawlers, for example, systematically browse the internet to index web pages for search engines.
- Interacting with webpages: Bots might monitor websites for changes, extract data (web scraping), or perform automated tests.
- Chatting with users: Chatbots provide customer service, answer queries, or guide users through processes on websites and messaging platforms.
- Looking for attack targets: Malicious bots constantly scan networks and systems for vulnerabilities to exploit, such as open ports or weak security configurations.
Diverse Applications of Bots
The utility of bots spans a broad spectrum, categorized generally into "good" bots and "bad" bots, each contributing to the high volume of automated internet traffic.
Types of Bot Activities
| Category | Purpose | Examples
