Addressing malicious traffic is a crucial concern for every organization that maintains a website. As per statistics from Imperva, a significant 42.3% of internet traffic is attributed to bots, many of which are specifically designed to scour online websites and APIs in search of vulnerabilities.
In response to this threat landscape, companies like DataDome, a leading bot management provider, have harnessed the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect and combat various bot-driven risks. These risks include account takeover, credential stuffing, the creation of fake accounts, and payment fraud schemes orchestrated by malicious bots. To bolster their efforts in this regard, DataDome recently announced a successful funding round, securing $42 million as part of their Series C funding.
DataDome’s innovative platform leverages machine learning (ML) at the edge, along with an AI-driven bot detection system. This robust combination allows DataDome to process an astonishing volume of over 3 trillion signals daily. Through this automated process, it efficiently identifies and mitigates bot attacks that target websites, mobile applications, and APIs.
Confronting automated bot attacks
The announcement coincides with a growing challenge faced by numerous organizations in combating the rising wave of automated website attacks.
Benjamin Fabre, CEO of DataDome, pointed out, “The use of bots in attacks has unquestionably become a common avenue for fraudulent activities. What further complicates the situation is the rapid advancement of AI, which enables threat actors to craft sophisticated attacks within minutes, targeting various points along the customer journey and reaping profits in the process. This is especially true for attacks driven by bots.”
He added, “Now, consider the fact that cybersecurity and fraud mitigation have traditionally operated in isolated silos, allowing attackers to exploit vulnerabilities. It’s a convergence of vulnerabilities that creates a perfect storm.”
DataDome utilizes automation to provide assurance to organizations that the individuals accessing their websites are genuine, and it safeguards data and accounts from potential compromises.
Furthermore, organizations facing website bot attacks can rely on round-the-clock support from DataDome’s specialized threat intelligence team to swiftly address and remediate the incident, ensuring the continuity of normal operations.
Reviewing the bot security market
DataDome’s solution operates within the realm of bot security, a market anticipated by MarketsandMarkets to expand from $408 million in 2021 to $983 million by 2026.
Among DataDome’s primary competitors are content delivery networks (CDNs) such as Cloudflare and Akamai, both of which offer supplementary bot management solutions.
In the case of Cloudflare, which generated $975.2 million in revenue in 2022, it employs machine learning to scrutinize traffic, assign scores to requests, and detect abnormal activity and bot-driven attacks. This approach leverages traffic fingerprinting to precisely identify bot traffic and detect activities like credential stuffing, content scraping, Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attempts targeting applications, and credit card stuffing attempts.
Likewise, Akamai, which recently disclosed an impressive revenue of over $3.6 billion in 2022, provides its own traffic protection solution known as Bot Manager. Bot Manager utilizes AI models and fingerprinting to assess user behavior against a constantly updated database of over 1,500 known bots.
Nevertheless, one of DataDome’s standout distinctions from these competitors, according to the company, is its external security support. As stated by Fabre, “DataDome identifies and swiftly responds to attacks with exceptional speed, precision, reliability, and expertise, thanks to machine learning oversight from our in-house Security Operation Center (SOC).”
