Bad Bots on the Rise: Thales Report Reveals 37% of Global Internet Traffic Now Malicious, Podcast

Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

“For the first time in over a decade, bots now outnumber humans on the internet — and a growing percentage are built to defraud, disrupt, and deceive.” — Tim Chang, Global VP & GM, Application Security, Thales

In a sobering conversation with Technology Reseller News, Tim Chang of Thales shared key insights from the 2025 Imperva Bad Bot Report, a deep dive into the increasingly dangerous world of automated internet traffic.

According to the report, 51% of all web traffic in 2024 was generated by bots, marking the first time bot traffic has surpassed human traffic. Even more concerning, 37% of all traffic is now classified as “bad bot” activity — a significant increase from 32% the previous year.

Thales, a global leader in digital identity and cybersecurity with over 80,000 employees worldwide, acquired Imperva two years ago. Together, the teams behind the Imperva Threat Research division are shining a light on the surge in bot-driven attacks — from simple web scrapers to polymorphic, AI-enhanced bad bots capable of account takeovers and API abuse.

Telecom Under Attack

Among the most targeted sectors? Telecom and ISPs, which now account for more than half of bad bot traffic. Chang explained that this is unsurprising given the critical infrastructure telecom supports and the high volume of customer data flowing through these systems.

Key takeaways from the report include:

• 51% of all internet traffic is now automated.
• 37% of global traffic comes from bad bots — a 7-point rise in one year.
• 40% increase in account takeover (ATO) attacks, often using stolen or brute-forced credentials.
• Telecom ranks as the second-most targeted vertical, just behind financial services.
• 55% of all telecom traffic is now made up of bad bots.

Chang emphasized that these bots are increasingly using AI to evade detection, shifting IP addresses, mimicking human behavior, and attacking not just websites but APIs — which lack visual interfaces and are harder to monitor.

10 Recommendations to Reduce Risk

To help organizations defend against this growing threat, Thales provides a set of 10 actionable recommendations, ranging from understanding your attack surface and deploying bot management tools, to tightening MFA usage and adopting a multi-layered defense strategy.

Chang also offered a strategic reminder: don’t play all your cards at once — adversaries are evolving just as quickly, and a staggered, adaptive defense is critical.

Access the full 2025 Imperva Bad Bot Report:
Download the Report from Thales/Imperva