Bot detection
Also known as: Bot detection · Anti-bot · Automation detection · Bot mitigation
Distinguishing automated access by scripts and robots from real human users, to block attacks at scale such as mass account creation, card testing and credential stuffing.
Legal basis
OWASP — Automated Threats to Web Applications
Much of fraud is not handcrafted, it is industrial: a script that opens thousands of accounts to capture bonuses, that tests lists of stolen cards, that tries leaked password combinations (*credential stuffing*). Bot detection separates that automated traffic from the human kind by device, network and behavior signals — the mechanical regularity, the impossible speed, the environment that betrays an emulator.
The race is constant: bots grew more sophisticated, they mimic mouse movement and drive real automated browsers, and now there is AI-agent automation, which blurs the line between robot and assisted user. That is why detection does not rest on a single trick — it combines multiple signals and a continuous risk score, the way OWASP catalogs automated threats to web applications.
Frequently asked questions
How does bot detection work?
It separates automated traffic (scripts, robots, emulators) from human traffic using device, network and behavior signals — mechanical regularity, atypical speed, suspicious environment. It serves to block attacks at scale such as mass account creation, card testing and credential stuffing.