Given today’s booming data economy, the prevalence of bot usage on the web has increased immensely in recent years. These bots come in many forms; however, they all have similar goals of obtaining user data one way or another, whether that is through direct attacks to IT systems or individually targeted customer scams.

Last week, Idaho-based digital fraud prevention and identity trust company Kount announced Event-Based Bot Protection, a new solution to be added onto Kount’s Identity Trust Platform. This bot detection solution is the latest addition to Kount’s line of offerings and will work to help protect the customer journey end-to-end.

Bot Detection

With constant technological advancements, it is becoming increasingly difficult to protect IT infrastructure and detect and block malicious bots with traditional solutions such as perimeter security, web access firewalls and content delivery networks.

Kount’s Event-Based Bot Detection quickly identifies and blocks malicious bot activity, recognizes and removes friction for good bots, and classifies and adapts resources for questionable bots. The solution aims to approach bot detection from a new angle, advancing beyond network and device-based solutions. In particular, unlike traditional solutions that identify bots using network characteristics, device characteristics and behavior characteristics, Kount’s adaptive solution applies a layered approach. It combines network, device and behavior signals with billions of identity trust signals from the Kount Identity Trust Global Network in order to accurately identify and classify a comprehensive range of bots. This enables businesses to quickly adapt defenses and protect the complete customer journey at all events, including at account creation, login and payment.

With this new solution, Kount helps businesses and customers to mitigate the cost of bot attacks, as bots can attack multiple points in the digital journey. Furthermore, given Kount’s advanced reporting, in-depth insights into customer behaviors and bot trends can be identified and used to inform future policies and strategies to help further secure customer experiences online.

Kount’s Event-Based Bot Detection solution comes at a key time, as Kount’s Bot Landscape and Impact Report reveals that 80% of businesses that engaged in digital commerce experienced an increase in financial loss because of complex and sophisticated malicious bots. Two-thirds of respondents said that a single malicious bot attack has costed them more than $500,000 in the last year.

“Innovation and advancement have become essential to address the rapidly changing threat landscape,” said Brad Wiskirchen, CEO at Kount. “Pioneering the most advanced solutions is embedded in Kount’s history, from being among the first companies to use machine learning to developing the largest Identity Trust Global Network. And today, we’re taking the next step with Event-Based Bot Detection. This new development furthers Kount’s position as the solution of choice for end-to-end customer journey protection.”

Considering the increased reliance on web-based services in light of remote living during the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding how to better protect user data and businesses alike is more important than ever before. With implementations of AI technologies and machine learning, dynamic fraud detection may be the key to protecting user data.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Serena He is a Tech Innovation Fellow from the University of Southern California who is interested in AI and the intersection of design and technology. She enjoys covering news across the digital identity and tech space.