Sounds like your average clickbait LinkedIn thought piece title right? “I went to a Taylor Swift concert and here’s what it taught me about enterprise sales!”
But if you look beyond the mega star name-drop, there’s some genuine cybersecurity gold.
The problem is simple, and quite common. You’re selling tickets. But, you have more people wanting tickets than you have tickets to sell.
Organizations across industries face this exact problem when managing items with limited allocations. Whether it be new product launches, exclusive releases, or inherently scarce resources, the challenge remains the same. On release day, these systems are buzzing with activity. But amidst the legitimate transactions there are swarms of bots trying to game the system. These bots wreak havoc, snapping up available slots far faster and denying real people access. The problem is even worse — legitimate customers often use bots to assist them in the lolly scramble. So you can’t just block every bot.
Taylor Swift Inc handles this problem better.
Inspired by the pop diva’s successful approach, we developed a rock solid strategy to ensure the bots can’t disrupt your operation.
Just like concert-goers patiently waiting for their turn, applicants and customers are ushered into a virtual waiting room. From there we can open a line of communication letting them know they’re not wasting their time. It’s a fair start for everyone.
We’re getting high-tech here! By fingerprinting devices and sessions, we can spot simple bots from a mile away. Take that, sneaky algorithms! However, it’s worth noting that services like browse.ai, zenrows.com, scrapify.io, scrapeops.io, or even GenAI with Puppeteer have resulted in fingerprinting evasion SLAs in the market. So these controls, although useful in increasing the cost for an attacker, are increasingly easier and cheaper to evade.
Ah, CAPTCHA, the bane of bots everywhere. But even this fortress has its cracks. Browser plugins and the aforementioned tools automate solutions. Or, for as little as $0.5 per 1000 captchas, you can even cost-effectively assemble a human army to solve them.
Here’s where things get interesting. We ask for personal identifiable information (PII) because it’s expensive to steal and better to rate limit on. Requiring identity disclosure is much more costly for a bot herder. For example, applicants provide details like passport numbers, addresses, and biometric data, making it tough for bots to slip through undetected.
Examples:
But wait, there’s more! We’re not just about proving identity; we’re also about ensuring it. Enter the “Identity Challenges.” Applicants may face various authentication methods such as email magic links (with or without pre registration), SMS verification codes, authentication apps with enrollment, or even federated identity services like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Government registration platforms. It adds an extra layer of assurance in the verification process.
Examples:
Hold onto your hats! We’re not just about proving identity; we’re also about balancing the commercial equation. Enter the “Balance of Trade” challenge. Applicants must demonstrate their commitment by commercially engaging in the transaction. This approach turns a cheap attack into an expensive one, or investing in an expensive defense into a revenue-generating one.
Examples:
When bots try to crash the party, we’re ready. We hit ’em with timeouts and deception tactics, sending them packing without a second thought. Our deception networks are designed to lure in and trap bots, ensuring they don’t stand a chance of disrupting the application process.
Fast forward to allocation release, and the difference is like night and day. The waiting room keeps things orderly, the fingerprinting tech keeps bots at bay (albeit with some evasion tactics), and applicants feel empowered knowing their efforts aren’t wasted. It’s a win-win!
Who would’ve thought Taylor Swift’s ticketing strategies could revolutionize the allocation process? But hey, when you’re dealing with chaos, sometimes a little pop inspiration is all you need.
These are the kinds of automated attack problems that Siege was formed to solve. Not only can we shine a light on the precise issues and help you understand the nature of bot attacks, but we can lend our considerable expertise to help you form strategies to address even the most complex problems.
If your organization could use this kind of valuable security insight, get in touch today.
Get prepared — contact us today.