Bots vs. The Business Team
Bots can have a wide range of effects on an organization, but few are as impactful as those that directly target the business itself. This typically manifests in one of two high-level ways -- bots can go after a business’s unique data or their applications. This can negatively impact the business competitively and disrupt the ability to serve valid customers. Here are a few examples of how bots can directly impact business:
- Scraping and Mining of Business Data - Every business is unique and bots can cause damage by harvesting the business-relevant data that is unique to an organization. This can include product pricing and availability data, which can be used by competitors to undercut sales. Scrapers can also harvest copyrighted content or information that is proprietary to the business.
- Denial of Inventory - Bots are also notorious for preventing valid users from accessing products on e-commerce sites in order to create secondary markets. Bots that buy up tickets for an event are the classic example of this type of attack, but the same concept can apply to any business where product supply is limited. Bots can even simply tie up inventory, not buying the product but adding products to the online shopping cart only to abandon the sale.
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