Singapore ranks 6th globally for bot traffic threats

Bad bots accounted for 45% of the travel industry traffic in 2023. 

Singapore ranked 6th globally as most targeted by automated threats with 35.2% of all traffic originating from bad bots, according to Imperva. 

Globally, Singapore contributed 3% of the global bot attacks in 2023. United States ranked highest (47%), followed by the Netherlands (9%) and Australia (8.4%).

In 2023, bad bots also compromised 45% of the global travel industry’s web traffic – larger than the 37% share in 2022.

Seat spinning is particularly rife in Asia. Bots hold airline seats without making payment, making unauthorised online travel agencies (OTAs) resell. Failure to offload can result in airlines being fully booked far below capacity.

In unauthorised web scraping, bots access airlines’ web properties to harvest data. This damages through increased fees airlines must pay their partners. 

Also, the industry experienced the second-highest volume of account takeovers (ATO), accounting for 11% of all ATO attacks in 2023. Cybercriminals target the sector due to valuable personal information and stored payment methods.

“Quick wins for security teams would include blocking outdated browser versions, restricting access from bulk IP data centres, and implementing detection strategies for signs of automation, like unusually fast interactions,” said Daniel Toh, Chief Solutions Architect of Asia Pacific and Japan, Imperva.