The rise of the 'gray bots' targeting websites for data
We all know about good bots like search engine crawler bots, SEO bots, and customer service bots. And we know about bad bots, designed for malicious or harmful online activities like breaching accounts to steal personal data or commit fraud.
New research from Barracuda identifies an additional breed of 'gray bots', and these include GenAI scraper bots, designed to extract or scrape large volumes of data from websites, often to train generative AI models. Other examples of gray bots are web scrapers and automated content aggregators that collect web content such as news, reviews, travel offers and more.
95 percent of website bot attacks go undetected
More than 65 percent of websites are unprotected against simple bot attacks and 95 percent of advanced bot attacks go undetected on websites.
A new report from DataDome reveals that eCommerce and luxury goods sites are at greatest risk. Just five percent of luxury brand websites and 10 percent of eCommerce websites are fully protected against bad bots.
Tens of thousands of websites vulnerable to data breaches
Over 58,000 unique websites from around the world are vulnerable to data breaches and even complete takeovers according to new research.
The Cybernews research team has investigated publicly exposed environment files (.env) that should be kept private and protected at all costs. These files hold passwords, API keys, and other secrets that websites need to access databases, mail servers, payment processors, content management systems, and various other services.
Free test lets you check how websites measure up to privacy rules
Governments around the world have been busily introducing privacy rules over the last few years and only this month the US Congress introduced a draft of a new federal law, the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA).
But how do you know if the websites you use are following the rules? ImmuniWeb is launching a new free website privacy test with checks and verifications that cover specific requirements of the majority of modern privacy, data protection and consumer protection laws in the US, UK, Europe and other regions.
Free link checker helps identify malicious websites
Cybersecurity company NordVPN is launching a new, free tool to allow users to check the safety of a website before visiting it.
Link Checker scans a site for different types of malware and delivers a notification about whether it's fake or infected with phishing scams.
How the .ai domain is benefiting cybercriminals (and a small Caribbean island)
Given all the interest in AI at the moment it's no surprise that cybercriminals are keen to cash in with a rise in AI themed attacks.
One way of doing this is with a .ai domain name. An unexpected beneficiary of this is the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla which has .ai as its country code.
Why customers are reluctant to share data online and what you can do about it [Q&A]
Brands are increasingly focussed on providing a good digital experience for their customers, yet many people remain reluctant to share their information with websites.
What are the reasons behind this reluctance? And what can enterprises do to overcome it? We talked to Josh Koenig, co-founder and chief strategy officer at SaaS web platform Pantheon, to find out.
Delivering good search results is essential but hard to do
Whether you're trying to buy something or just looking for information, not being able to find what you want on a website is frustrating.
So it's not surprising that in a new survey of search practitioners from website search platform Lucidworks, 100 percent of respondents rank search relevance as being 'Highly Important'. What's more, 76 percent expect search relevance to become even more important in the future.
Poor website experience makes 60 percent of consumers abandon a purchase
A new survey of 6,000 online shoppers in the US and EU finds that many websites are causing problems for eCommerce companies due to poor design.
The study from Storyblok shows that 42 percent say they decide whether to stay on or leave a website within 10 seconds -- 20 percent within five seconds -- while 60 percent have abandons a purchase because of poor website experience.
Website shadow code represents major risk for enterprises
A new report from web application protection specialist Source Defense highlights the risk presented by the use of third and fourth party code on corporate websites.
The digital supply chain means that highly dynamic and unpredictable scripts and code from third parties and beyond, permeate every aspect of a business's web presence. This shadow code has led to some high profile breaches including the British Airways hack in 2018.
Demand for web developers jumps during pandemic
A new survey from open source web development platform Elementor reveals that 67 percent of web professionals say they have experienced growth in their businesses since the pandemic began.
This trend is expected to continue, with 77 percent saying they expect the field of web design and development to continue to grow over the next five years.
7 reasons to make your website a progressive web app
These days progressive web applications (PWAs) are gaining their share in the web world. They have become a decent alternative to native mobile applications. There is even an opinion that progressive web apps have enough potential to become the future of the web.
In this article, we will discuss the core benefits of this advanced technology. You will find out what makes PWAs so special and why you should consider turning your website into a progressive web app.
Passwords are bad for online business
According to a report from Transmit Security, more than half of consumers have stopped using a website because of the login process and more than 87 percent have been locked out of an online account because of an error-ridden password process.
The survey of 600 US consumers finds organizations are losing potential customers and a substantial amount of revenue because of their dependency on traditional password systems and outdated customer authentication models.
WebSite X5 2021 is released with multi-site preview support and a visual refresh
The days of hand-coding websites are long gone, and site creation applications such as WebSite X5 have made life much easier for individuals and businesses. We may now be a couple of months into 2021, but this very title has received a major update which includes a new look for the new year.
While the new user interface -- which has been cleaned, polished and refined -- is perhaps the most immediately obvious change in the newly released WebSite X5 2021.1, there's plenty more going on as well.
Google Web Designer 9 adds powerful image-processing tools, custom keyboard shortcuts
Google has released Google Web Designer 9.0, the third major update of its HTML-5 content-producing tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux in just over a year. The tool is particularly popular among web advertisers thanks to its user-friendly WYSIWYG user interface and time-saving tools such as syntax highlighting and code auto-completion.
Version 9.0 introduces a host of useful new tools, including an eyedropper for easy color picking, several image-processing tools, support for masking, and the ability to set up custom keyboard shortcuts.
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