Nearly half of all internet traffic came from bots last year, according to new research. Figures from cyber security firm Imperva revealed a significant increase in automated and malicious web activity in 2022, with the proportion of human traffic falling to its lowest level in eight years. The company noted that so-called “bad bots” were at their highest level since it started tracking the trend in 2013. Bot activity is expected to increase even further this year, the researchers claimed, due to the arrival of generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. “Bots have evolved rapidly since 2013, but with the advent of generative artificial intelligence, the technology will evolve at an even greater, more concerning pace over the next 10 years,” said Karl Triebes, a senior vice president at Imperva. “Cyber criminals will increase their focus on attacking API endpoints and application business logic with sophisticated automation. As a result, the business disruption and financial impact associated with bad bots will become even more significant in the coming years.” Bad bot activity can include anything from spam that clogs up email inboxes, to advanced systems that carry out brute force attacks to hack into people’s emails or online accounts. Some bots even mimic human behaviour in order to avoid being detected by security software. Another worrying trend noted in the report was the rise of bots used in warfare, with a 145 per cent spike in automated attacks targeting Ukrainian web applications in early 2022. These were likely designed to disrupt the country’s critical infrastructure, ranging from energy and telecom, to transport and financial sectors. “Every organisation, regardless of size or industry, should be concerned about the rising volume of bad bots across the internet,” said Triebes. “Year-over-year, the proportion of bot traffic is growing and the disruptions caused by malicious automation results in tangible business risks – from brand reputation issues to reduced online sales and security risks for web applications, mobile apps, and APIs.” Read More Why tech bosses are doomsday prepping ChatGPT is finally connected to the web 75% of Irish data watchdog’s GDPR decisions since 2018 overruled – report Nasa’s AI gives ‘30 minutes of advance warning’ before solar superstorms strike Earth

It was an extraordinarily public recruitment drive from an MI6 chief - an open invitation to senior officials in Russia’s security establishment to join those who have defected in disgust over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Sir Richard Moore wanted to send a direct message to officials and politicians in Moscow : “You know the address – come and talk to us… Our door is always open… Our loyalty to our agents is lifelong… our gratitude eternal… Their secrets will always be safe with us.” This was only the second public address by Sir Richard since he had taken over as ‘C’, and there was a reason why he chose Prague to raise this theme. It was crushing of the Prague Spring by Russian tanks 55 years ago which had led to a wave of Soviet officials crossing over to the West. There have been other defections since then. But security officers point out, these have been motivated, to a large extent, by other factors such as money, or general unhappiness, or clashes with colleagues. But the Ukraine war has seen a return to Russian officials agreeing to help Western services in numbers which one officer described as “ surprising but very, very welcome”. Sir Richard, speaking at the British embassy, said “Many Russians are wrestling with the same dilemmas and the same tugs of conscience as their predecessors did in 1968. “I invite them to do what others have already done this past 18 monthsand join hands with us. We will handle their offers of help with the discretion and professionalism for which our service is famed.” People in the Kremlin hierarchy have seen Putin’s position become progressively weak, Sir Richard wanted to point out. The fact that Yevgeny Prigozhin is still free and moving around despite marching on Moscow to carry out a coup was an astonishing example of this. “Just remember, in the morning of the coup Prigozhin was a traitor. By the evening he had been pardoned, two days later he was having tea with Putin”, said the head of MI6.” A security official added later: “And of course it was not tea with polonium which is something enemies of President Putin could have expected in the past, but now Putin is in no position to do that.” Ukrainian military and intelligence officials have claimed that they have received information from the Kremlin via Western intelligence services enabling them to carry out attacks inside Russia. Sir Richard would not be drawn on what role his or other British services may have played in this. He wanted to stress, however, that many in Moscow’s security apparatus shared Prigozhin’s scathing assessment of what had unfolded in Ukraine. “One architect of that onslaught, Yevgeny Prigozhin, demolished the whole charade in a single sentence when he said, and I quote Prigozhin’s own words. ‘The war was needed for Shoigu to receive a hero star….The oligarchic clan that rules Russia needed the war. The mentally ill scumbags decided: ‘it’s OK, we’ll throw in a few thousand more Russian men as cannon fodder. They’ll die under artillery fire, but we’ll get what we want.”’ The fact remains, however, that Putin’s Russia has global allies helping in Ukraine. Moore said “Some nations have reduced themselves to being accomplices of the aggressor. Iran’s decision to supply Russia with the suicide drones that mete out random destruction to Ukraine’s cities has provoked internal quarrels at the highest level of the regime in Tehran. And so it should, because that decision was unconscionable. Iran seeks cash by selling arms to Russia to enable them to kill Ukrainian civilians.” Wagner is no longer active in Ukraine, but its widespread and lucrative operations in Africa have continued. The regimes dealing with them in the continent will, in the long run, suffer, Sir Richard held. Russia is “hawking mercenaries around Africa”, and in nations suffering from civil war, poverty and collapsed infrastructure, Moscow is “offering a 21st Century version of a Faustian pact.” But the regimes which welcomed Wagner are at risk. “Now they’ve had to watch the very mercenaries who they are supposed to trust with their livesturning against their ultimate patron, Vladimir Putin, and bearing down on Moscow. If Russian mercenaries can betray Putin, who else might they betray?” Russia has sought ever closer ties with China as international sanctions have begun to bite. But that has come at a cost, China is emerging as the senior partner in the relationship. Sir Richard ended on his theme of redemption of Russians by rejecting Vladimir Putin and his war of aggression. “ They are watching in horror as their soldiers ravage a kindred country. They know in their hearts that Putin’s case for attacking a fellow Slavic nation is fraudulent, a miasma of lies and fantasy. The message to them is “ our door is always open.” Read More Russia-Ukraine war – live: Putin ‘clearly under pressure’ in wake of Wagner mutiny says UK spy chief Ireland will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes, vows Leo Varadkar South Africa says Putin will skip a summit next month because of his ICC arrest warrant The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

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