Automated internet programs, or bots, were created for various purposes. Some good, and many not so good. The robots.txt file in the root of your site is basically telling the good bots what they should and should not look for on your website.
An Internet bot, web robot, robot or simply bot, is a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet.Typically, bots perform tasks that are simple and repetitive, much faster than a person could. The most extensive use of bots is for web crawling, in which an automated script fetches, analyzes and files information from websites and web servers. One of the most popular bots is the google spider bot. More than half of all web traffic is generated by bots. These are the good bots!
There are also a lot of bad bots on the internet that you need to protect yourself from. Malicious bots are usually created by hackers to perform automated tasks like scraping content, prices and product catalogs, create fake registrations, collect flight seat information, mass book tickets and sell elsewhere (scalping), and so on. These scrupulous activities are endless and are on the rise. It is estimated that almost half of the Web traffic is from bots, and most of these bots are created with malicious intent.
The following video describes how you can protect your website or web server and even your company network from these malicious bots.
Cloudflare, even with a free account provides great malicious bot protection. Other ways you can protect your website and network from bot's are as follows.
- .htaccess file
- Install mod-security on your webserver
- Use a good perimeter firewall
- Install a WAF - Web Application Firewall
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