Web Scraping Protection

What is Web Scraping?

Web Scraping, or Web Harving, consists of the art of extracting data from a website.
Thus, thanks to software or a program, it is possible to recover the content of a website and subsequently reuse it by structuring it in a database.
This process is today automated using a bot which will browse the sites to retrieve the requested information, this is called crawling.

How can Web Scraping be used?

Both individuals and professionals can use Web Scraping software.
Be careful however, this type of technique must respect the law including the GDPR.
Thus, within the legal framework, an individual can use software to compare prices or classified ads.
Concerning professionals, it is more delicate. Legally, a professional can, for example, use Web Scraping to:

⋅ Detect competitors’ price variations.
⋅ Retrieve contacts in large quantities on social networks such as LinkedIn, but be careful with the information retrieved and the use made, it is prohibited to engage in commercial canvassing.
⋅ Analyze figures and data without disclosing them.
⋅ Collect and analyze the reviews of these customers on the different review platforms.
⋅ Review current events and trends.

However, Web Scraping is often misused. Among the illegal uses, we find:

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Data Scraping

The collection and use of personal and confidential data for profit. Indeed, a person must give their consent to the collection and use of their data, this is called opt-in.

Content Scraping

Copying all or part of the content of a website onto a publicly accessible medium. It is prohibited by law to copy any image or content without the consent of the original author, because they are protected by copyright.
This type of technique is often used in the context of natural referencing, by copying a well-positioned competitor. Be careful, search engines like Google ban this kind of behavior.
It is also prohibited to use Web Scraping when the extraction method is fraudulent or illegal.

How does a Web Scraping attack take place?

Cyberattacks using Web Scraping take place in 3 distinct phases which are:

1. URL information

This preliminary step is used to enter the URLs that must be targeted, but also to configure the attack by creating fake accounts, or by camouflaging malicious robots into useful robots (like those of Google for SEO).

2. Software and processes

The army of robots used for Web Scraping go to targeted URLs. The more bots there are, the more likely the server is to go down and become inaccessible.

3. Content and data extraction

Bots and cybercriminals extract data and content from targets and then store it in their own databases for future use.

Why should you protect yourself from Web Scraping?

Web Scraping is, just like software, available in “as a Service” mode.
Thus, it is possible to find software for Web Harving, without having to program a single line.
Dishonest people can therefore recover confidential and personal data very easily.
In addition, it is, for example, possible that banking data leaks and that cybercriminals use Web Scraping to recover information en masse very quickly; this type of scenario has already happened and is very dangerous for the confidentiality of vulnerable data.
They can also copy the integrity of a site to duplicate its content and publish their version.
All this is done automatically through the use of a bot. It is essential to protect yourself from it.

Protect from Web Scraping

To protect yourself from Web Scraping, several solutions can be implemented, such as:
⋅ Use a captcha
⋅ Filter incoming requests
⋅ Monitor new accounts (and even existing ones)
⋅ Detect abnormally long visit peaks
⋅ Block malicious IP addresses
⋅ Use protection software against web scraping robots, as offered by Cloudfilt

Indeed, using software like Cloudfilt allows you to protect yourself against Web Scraping effectively and sustainably.

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We stop only bad and malicious Bots

You will have a more global view of your visitors and their behavior. Indeed CloudFilt is the only solution to analyze the front and the back end at the same time.

Bot traffic

Bot traffic is non-human traffic to a website/webapp or API. While some bot traffic is beneficial(GoogleBot, Bingbot, SemrushBot...), abusive and bad bot traffic can be very dangerous.

Web Scraping

Web scraping, web harvesting, or web data extraction is data scraping used for extracting, stealing or monitoring content and data from websites.

Tor traffic

Tor traffic is visitors passing through the TOR network. Very used by hackers it will prevent you from automated attacks.

Spam Submissions

Spam Submissions or Spambots Attack is computer programs that execute repetitive tasks and post spam in various places like contact page, registration page, comments, reviews...

Proxy traffic

Proxy traffic is visitors passing through the Proxy network. Very used by hackers it will prevent you from automated attacks and phishing proxies.

Fake Account Creation

Fake account creation is an automated bot threat that cybercriminals use to commit fraudulent acts like reputation manipulation, fake reviews, spreading disinformation through fake posts/news, or theft through account sign-up bonuses or discounts.

IP reputation

IP reputation can be used to block large scale hackers, DDoS and DoS attacks from infected or malicious sources based on shared blacklists with our partners.

Account Takeover

Account Takeover or ATO is an automated bot threat that cybercriminals use to brute force entry to an account. Credential Stuffing attacks crawl lists of leaked usernames/emails and passwords, using bots to continually test combinations on multiple sites until they are successful.

IP Risk Score

IP Risk Score can be used to block large scale hackers, DDoS and DoS attacks from infected or malicious sources by analysing historical behavior. A behavior considered normal on a site can be dangerous on another.

Web Fraud

Web Fraud is any unusual behavior on your website or web application. Based on the browsing history of other users, we are able to identify risky behavior like click fraud, Ad Fraud...

Carding Fraud

Carding Fraud robots tries to use pirated cards, this results in chargebacks and unnecessarily declined transactions.

Business logic

Business Logic Attacks or BATs/BLBs pollutes data and site metrics, making it hard to understand who your actual customers are.

Inventory Hoarding

Inventory Hoarding or Denial of inventory is an automated bot threat that cybercriminals use to repeatedly places an e-commerce product or service in the shopping cart, without ever completing the transaction. The e-commerce website believe that the product or service is out of stock, so that legitimate buyers will see it as not being available.

Marketing Fraud

Marketing Fraud is an mimic human behavior when visiting websites, clicking on ads, filling out forms and surveys. Even as marketers are under increasing pressure to focus on the metrics, conversions and data-driven tactics that drive better business results, bots enter CRM systems and data management platforms, skewing results and retargeting. They steal marketers’ money and then go on to waste more ad spend.

Denial of service (DDoS)

DDoS is bots attack making a service unavailable and preventing legitimate users from using it by occupying it.

Protection from automated threats

Automated Threat or OAT, is an automated threat is a type of computer security threat to a computer network or web application, characterised by the malicious use of automated tools such as Internet bots.

Blocking by country and continent(GDPR)

General Data Protection Regulation, is regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.