The internet is getting busier by the day—but not necessarily with people. According to the 2024 Imperva Bad Bot Report, bots made up 49.6% of all global internet traffic in 2023, marking the highest level recorded since tracking began in 2013. Human users now account for just 50.4% of total traffic—a slim and shrinking majority.
These numbers might sound surprising, but they reflect a steady trend over the past decade: automation is taking over the web. The bots in question range from helpful search engine crawlers to far more sinister programs designed to exploit websites.
The biggest concern? According to the report, bad bots now make up 32% of all internet traffic, a jump from 30.2% in 2022. These malicious bots are engineered to mimic human behavior and are commonly used for credential stuffing, data scraping, ad fraud and website attacks. Industries like e-commerce, travel and banking are particularly vulnerable, facing constant bot-driven threats aimed at user accounts and pricing data.
Not all bots are harmful, of course. Good bots—such as those used by search engines, uptime monitors, and digital assistants—still play a valuable role and account for 17.6% of web traffic. But the balance is tipping, and experts warn that as bots become more sophisticated, traditional cybersecurity defenses may no longer be enough.
The report also highlights that more than half of bad bots are now “advanced”—meaning they rotate IP addresses, disguise themselves, and behave like real users, making them harder to detect and block. With the rise of generative AI and automation tools, this trend is only expected to accelerate.
So while you may still be a human navigating the web, chances are you’re brushing digital shoulders with bots—lots of them. And increasingly, they’re not just watching. They’re acting.
PNN
