What are bots and why you should be careful with them
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2024 8:29 am
Learning what bots are will help you identify how to use these resources responsibly and, more importantly, protect yourself from those who try to affect your systems. Find out all about it here!
Jesus Cardenas
May 1, 22 | 7 min read
what are bots
Reading time: 6 minutes
Anyone who has been involved in the world of the Internet, software, artificial intelligence or social networks for any length of time will have already read or heard about the famous "bots" or computer robots.
If this is your case, you probably already have a concept in your head about what bots are and what they are used for, right?
However, it is very likely that the knowledge you have about them is only the tip of the iceberg and, in this post, we will tell you from start to finish what bots are and why you should be very careful with this resource.
Read to the end!
What are bots?
How do bots work?
Risks of bots
Types of bots
How to detect a malicious bot?
What are bots?
"Bot" is a concept that comes from the same timor leste email list meaning as robot. This leads us to quickly think that it is an automated system that performs various tasks.
In short, bots are computer programs designed to perform different actions in a repetitive and predefined manner to free up the workload for a human being.
Which makes them a kind of "helpers" so that a person can perform a task much faster without thinking about those initiatives that are boring and repetitive.
Their nature allows them to perform actions much faster than a human being. For a computer program, a million tasks can be done literally in one second — obviously depending on the processing power of the computer that executes them.
Which makes them a perfect ally for automating things like:
catalog websites;
respond to messages from customers on social networks;
send emails;
programming websites;
among many others.
But - there is always a "but" - they are also used to carry out malicious missions and take advantage of the vulnerabilities or characteristics of the systems to gain control and favor one person at the expense of another or others.
How do bots work?
To fully understand what bots are and what they are used for, it is vital to understand how they work.
To this end, it is necessary to clarify the differences that exist between a computer bot and an Internet bot.
Discover them!
Computer bot
A bot is a software program that performs various actions on a device using a sequence described in its source code in order to perform a specific task.
They are often designed to mimic human behavior, such as a bot created to crawl websites for ranking in SERPs .
Internet Bot
An Internet bot is a program similar to a computer bot but with one more layer added: its presence within the network.
Which generally makes them allies for organizations looking for programs capable of interacting with the Internet and facilitating their work.
For example, an Internet bot could be able to run an email marketing campaign , respond to messages, serve customers via chat , fill out online forms, search for information, among others.
So, we can say that bots work through commands established in their code in order to carry out tasks in an automated way, making people's work easier and freeing them from the time and energy needed to execute them.
Jesus Cardenas
May 1, 22 | 7 min read
what are bots
Reading time: 6 minutes
Anyone who has been involved in the world of the Internet, software, artificial intelligence or social networks for any length of time will have already read or heard about the famous "bots" or computer robots.
If this is your case, you probably already have a concept in your head about what bots are and what they are used for, right?
However, it is very likely that the knowledge you have about them is only the tip of the iceberg and, in this post, we will tell you from start to finish what bots are and why you should be very careful with this resource.
Read to the end!
What are bots?
How do bots work?
Risks of bots
Types of bots
How to detect a malicious bot?
What are bots?
"Bot" is a concept that comes from the same timor leste email list meaning as robot. This leads us to quickly think that it is an automated system that performs various tasks.
In short, bots are computer programs designed to perform different actions in a repetitive and predefined manner to free up the workload for a human being.
Which makes them a kind of "helpers" so that a person can perform a task much faster without thinking about those initiatives that are boring and repetitive.
Their nature allows them to perform actions much faster than a human being. For a computer program, a million tasks can be done literally in one second — obviously depending on the processing power of the computer that executes them.
Which makes them a perfect ally for automating things like:
catalog websites;
respond to messages from customers on social networks;
send emails;
programming websites;
among many others.
But - there is always a "but" - they are also used to carry out malicious missions and take advantage of the vulnerabilities or characteristics of the systems to gain control and favor one person at the expense of another or others.
How do bots work?
To fully understand what bots are and what they are used for, it is vital to understand how they work.
To this end, it is necessary to clarify the differences that exist between a computer bot and an Internet bot.
Discover them!
Computer bot
A bot is a software program that performs various actions on a device using a sequence described in its source code in order to perform a specific task.
They are often designed to mimic human behavior, such as a bot created to crawl websites for ranking in SERPs .
Internet Bot
An Internet bot is a program similar to a computer bot but with one more layer added: its presence within the network.
Which generally makes them allies for organizations looking for programs capable of interacting with the Internet and facilitating their work.
For example, an Internet bot could be able to run an email marketing campaign , respond to messages, serve customers via chat , fill out online forms, search for information, among others.
So, we can say that bots work through commands established in their code in order to carry out tasks in an automated way, making people's work easier and freeing them from the time and energy needed to execute them.