Internet bots are something that we experience all the time on the internet, whether it is through automated emails or pop-up ads. Internet bots are everywhere, and we need to stay on the lookout.
Paul Wiegand, an assistant professor in the computer science and quantitative methods department in the College of Business, specializes in learning and optimization with topics such as internet bots.
“For example, [in] automated call systems you can’t necessarily employ thousands of people to answer the phone, but you can have the systems get people through the first layer, [with] some technical help online,” Wiegand said.
While Wiegand notes that internet bots such as automatic call systems can be helpful, he also notes how dangerous they can be if abused.
“There are some notable good purposes for those things, but also some obviously poor or malicious uses for those things,” Wiegand said. “And in a particular sense, we can take these automated systems and plug them into social media, and have programs that act as if they are users.”
Not only have internet bots become trickier to pick apart and distinguish between what is safe and is not, but people who create bots are being more creative to manipulate internet users into interacting with bots.
“It’s getting harder and harder and harder to detect these automated systems. And they shut them down as quickly as they can, but the technology is getting so much better,” Wiegand said. “And part of the reason why these systems can be so effective is not so much their intelligence, but their ability to manipulate our emotional state.”
Andrew Besmer, an associate professor of computer science at Winthrop, has expertise in security and privacy. He notes that bots are a continually growing problem because of how many there are.
“Bots are quite harmful because of the fact that there is power in numbers. Individually, a single bot isn’t likely to take down a website,” Besmer said. “But multiply that by 100, 200, 500k and have them all request the website simultaneously and they can easily topple small to medium size websites, services and anything else connected to the internet. Entire companies’ business models are providing services to mitigate the threat that they pose.”
Besmer notes that to keep you and your devices safe, it is better to be proactive rather than reactive.
“Most bot network owners do not want you to know you have a bot. In fact, it’s better if you don’t know because the second you do, what are you going to do? Take it to get fixed,” Besmer said. “This is why operational security is so important. Have an antivirus system in place, updated, and active.”
To prevent misinformation, Besmer has a few tips on how to lessen the number of bots you could receive.
“I think there is a misconception that spam causes these problems. There are far more sources of your computer becoming a bot: browsing the web with an unpatched browser, having a computer without updates connected to a network,” Besmer said. “The best thing you can do is try to keep your computer’s antivirus software up to date.”
