'The challenge is no longer identifying bots. Its understanding what the bot, agent, or automation is doing': New report flags 40% of all internet traffic is now bad bots

Date:
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:15:00 +0000

Description:
The Dead Internet Theory is very much alive, as Thales finds bad bots taking up more and more of global internet traffic.

FULL STORY
Its been a few years now since automated bot activity took up most
of global web traffic, but bad bots are taking an ever-increasing share of that cake, and with AI agents being thrown into the mix, the problem is only getting more complex.

A new report on bot activity, harvested from Thales Threat Research and Security Analyst Services teams over 2025 found automated activity now represents more than 53% of all internet traffic, while the remaining 47%
fall on human interaction. Bad bots, on the other hand, now take up almost
40% of all global web traffic. AI-driven bot attacks have
surged 12.5 times over the past year, Thales added. This evolution has moved beyond simple scripts for credential stuffing or price scraping and turned bots into sophisticated entities that can mimic human behavior with alarming precision.

These "AI agents" are now in a category of their own, interacting directly with applications and APIs to perform complex tasks.

As such, they are increasingly blurring the lines between legitimate business automation and malicious intent.

AI is transforming automation from something organizations try to block into something they must also manage, said Tim Chang, Global Vice President and General Manager, Application Security at Thales.

The challenge is no longer identifying bots. Its understanding what the bot, agent, or automation is doing, whether it aligns with business intent, and
how it interacts with critical systems.

A significant portion of this malicious activity (around 27%) is now targeted specifically at APIs. By bypassing traditional user interfaces, bots can interact with backend systems at machine speed, exploiting business logic and manipulating workflows. The trend is apparently most obvious in the financial services sector, where 46% of all account takeover incidents of last year happened.

Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/the-challenge-is-no-longer-identifying- bots-its-understanding-what-the-bot-agent-or-automation-is-doing-new-report-fl ags-40-percent-of-all-internet-traffic-is-now-bad-bots

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