Automated bot attacks can affect any business, agency, or ecommerce site. These malicious programs execute harmful actions that could bring down your site, scam customers, or overload your server. Repeated attacks could damage your company’s reputation and lead to legal consequences if sensitive customer data is compromised.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to stop them. These include using a robust anti-fraud plugin and implementing a firewall to block suspicious IP addresses. You may also want to switch to a hosting provider that offers DDoS protection and other advanced security features.
In this post, we’ll take a closer look at how bot attacks work, how to recognize them, and how to prevent them. Let’s get going!
A bot attack occurs when malicious automated scripts perform unauthorized actions on your website. It can take different forms, including:
Ecommerce websites are prime targets for bot attacks since they process financial transactions and store sensitive customer data. If you have an online shop, you should also be aware of the following attacks:
You might feel overwhelmed by all these possible bot attacks, but as you’ll soon find out, there are tools to help you stop them.
You’re probably wondering: how do I know if my website is under attack?
Here are the biggest red flags for WordPress sites:
If you have an online store, you’ll also want to look out for the following:
Knowing what bot attacks look like will make it easier to stop them. If you’re in doubt about something (like whether a spike in traffic is due to a bot attack or a genuine increase in interest), it’s better to err on the side of caution and look into the cause.
If you detect a bot attack, take prompt action to stop it and mitigate its effects. Here’s what you’ll need to do:
One of the first steps you should take is to block suspicious IP addresses. You can do this through your host’s firewall or a security plugin like Jetpack.
Many security tools enable you to view incoming traffic and identify malicious IP addresses. You can then block these IPs to prevent further access.
If the attack appears to originate from a specific geographic region, you’ll also be able to block traffic from those locations using geo-blocking features.
Bots often flood websites with spam comments or form submissions. To mitigate this, you’ll need to install an anti-spam plugin like Akismet. Akismet is installed and available on all Pressable sites.
This plugin uses advanced machine learning to analyze submissions in real time and filter out suspicious ones. It does all the work in the background so as not to interfere with the browsing experience of authentic visitors.
When bots target specific areas of your site, like login forms, temporarily deactivate these features until you can resolve the issue. For example, you could unpublish the login page or remove the affected form.
This prevents bots from completing malicious activities and causing more damage. It also gives you time to implement the necessary security measures to stop future attacks.
If you suspect someone is making fraudulent transactions on your store, install the Anti-Fraud for WooCommerce extension or a similar plugin.
This will detect fraudulent purchases in real time and lock out any suspicious transactions. Typically, such tools look at unusual shipping addresses, blocked credit cards, and high-risk payment methods.
A comprehensive security solution, like Jetpack, prevents a wide range of attacks, including brute force attempts.
With Jetpack, you also have the option to add two-factor authentication (2FA). This makes it even more difficult for bots to gain access to your site, as it adds a layer of verification.
Removing the guest checkout option ensures that every transaction is tied to a verified account.
This makes it more difficult for bots to abuse your store, but it can also be inconvenient for genuine shoppers. It should be a temporary measure until you implement a solid anti-fraud solution.
In WooCommerce, navigate to Settings → Accounts & Privacy and untick the box for Enable guest checkout.
Some scanners might report XML-RPC as a security risk, and it used to be in much older versions of WordPress. However, WordPress made significant updates and improvements to make XML-RPC as secure as the rest of WordPress. All requests need to be authenticated with a username and password credentials that already exist on the site.
The Pressable platform performs rate limiting and blocking. There’s also DDoS monitoring for when additional limiting needs to be applied.
Jetpack also includes the Brute Force (previously Protect) module which further helps protect against XML-RPC attacks.
The only potential security vulnerability you might face with XML-RPC is that of a man in the middle attack. But you face this same risk with the regular WordPress admin, so it’s not unique to XML-RPC.
The best way to prevent this kind of issue is to enable SSL security on your site, and SSL is provided and enabled on all Pressable sites.
Please also note that disabling XML-RPC will cause connectivity issues with Jetpack and possibly other plugins.
If the bot attack persists, it’s important to notify your hosting provider immediately. The best hosting services will offer strong support, like Pressable’s 24/7 live chat with an average response time of less than four minutes.
Your host can provide immediate assistance to reduce the impact of the attack and ensure your site stays operational. They may even help you implement features to prevent future attacks.
Now, let’s look at long-term solutions for preventing bot attacks.
The following measures apply to all WordPress sites.
Use Strong Passwords & Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
One of the simplest, yet most effective, ways to prevent unauthorized access is to ensure that all users on your site have strong passwords. They should include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
You’ll also want to implement 2FA. This requires users to supply a code sent to their phone or email address in addition to submitting their username and password. You can use a plugin like Jetpack to enable this feature on your site.
Regularly Update WordPress Core, Plugins, and Themes
Keeping your WordPress core, plugins, and themes up to date will protect your website from known vulnerabilities.
Developers frequently release security patches for known issues. Failing to run these updates will leave your site exposed to bots that target weaknesses in outdated software.
Make it a habit to check your WordPress dashboard for new updates. You can also enable auto-updates for your themes and plugins.
Install a Security Plugin
A comprehensive security solution like Jetpack protects your site from bots and other threats.
With Jetpack, you’ll get features like malware scanning, brute force protection, spam protection, a firewall, and an activity log. The latter helps you monitor unusual actions on your site and identify suspicious users.
Restrict Access from Outdated Browsers
Many bots target websites using outdated browsers or insecure protocols. Therefore, it’s a good idea to restrict access to your site from older browser versions.
Services like Cloudflare offer this option as part of their security suite, but any reliable web host like Pressable will have this feature built into their server environment.
Block Offending IP Addresses
Maintaining an updated list of known malicious IP addresses is a proactive way to prevent future bot attacks.
Jetpack lets you add IPs that you want to block from your website. After installing the plugin, go to Jetpack → Settings and click on the Security tab.
Then, scroll down to the Firewall section and enable Protect your site with Jetpack’s Web Application Firewall.
In the field provided, add the IP addresses you want to block, then click on Save block list.
Disable Trackbacks & Pingbacks
Trackbacks and pingbacks are WordPress features that allow other websites to notify you when they link to your content. However, bots can exploit them to send spam or generate fake traffic.
To disable them, go to Settings → Discussion and uncheck the option for Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks).
Protect RSS Feeds
Bots can target RSS feeds for content scraping or spamming purposes. By limiting the amount of content in your RSS feed, you’ll reduce the chance of bots using it to copy or scrape your data.
Instead of providing full-text RSS feeds, switch to a summary feed with partial content. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings → Reading. Under the For each article in a feed, show section, select Excerpt instead of Full Text.
Here are some additional steps for ecommerce sites, including WooCommerce stores.
Enable CAPTCHA on Login and Checkout Forms
CAPTCHAs are tests that tell humans and bots apart. You’re likely familiar with them: they’re those challenges you’ll find with some online forms, where you must select images that contain a particular object or identify some blurred letters.
These tests are difficult for bots to complete, so they’re effective at keeping them at bay. The problem is that they create an obstacle for genuine users, too, especially those with visual or cognitive impairments.
Therefore, use them as a temporary fix while you work on a better solution, like installing an anti-spam plugin.
Use Payment Gateways with Fraud Detection
Many reputable payment gateways have built-in fraud detection. For example, WooPayments, in partnership with Stripe, uses Stripe Radar, which harnesses machine learning trained on data from millions of companies to identify fraudulent transactions in real time.
WooPayments also has customizable fraud prevention settings to account for unique merchant needs. Plus, it will flag elevated-risk transactions so you can identify potential orders for which you want to implement your own manual verification.
Authorize.net has the Advanced Fraud Detection Suite, which uses multiple filters and tools to look for indicators of fraud in transactions.
Implement Rate Limiting
Bots often try to complete multiple transactions with different stolen credit card details. Rate limiting blocks excessive payment attempts and prevents unauthorized transactions.
This means putting a limit on the number of times a visitor can repeat an action within a certain timeframe. Any powerful firewall will have rate-limited features that stop excessive requests from the same IP address.
Encrypt Customer Data & Enforce HTTPS
Encryption is a must for all websites. It ensures that sensitive data like login credentials and payment details is transmitted securely between the visitor’s browser and your website.
To get started, make sure you have a valid SSL certificate. Many hosting providers like Pressable offer a free certificate with their plans.
With an SSL certificate, your site uses HTTPS rather than unsecured HTTP. In fact, a visitor will typically get a warning from their browser when they visit a website that uses HTTP.
Install WooCommerce Anti-Fraud
WooCommerce Anti-Fraud is an extension that detects and blocks fraudulent transactions before they are processed. It assigns a risk score to each order based on various factors, like mismatched billing and shipping addresses, IP geolocation discrepancies, and suspicious email domains.
After you install it, you can set up automated actions. For example, you might configure the plugin to automatically cancel suspicious orders, block the email address, and prevent payment gateway access. Alternatively, you can choose to receive a notification and process the order manually.
Disable Guest Checkout When Feasible
Guest checkout makes it easier for bots to carry out fraudulent transactions, as no account verification is involved. Disabling this feature will mitigate the problem, but it will also alienate shoppers who do not wish to create an account on your site.
Account and guest checkout settings in WooCommerce
Therefore, you should only require user registration for purchases if you believe that it won’t hurt your sales.
Bots love forms and, unless you’ve taken proactive steps to prevent them, you’ve probably noticed that you get a lot of spam submissions. Here are some steps you can take:
Enable Google reCAPTCHA
Google reCAPTCHA blocks bots from submitting spam forms. It verifies that a user is human through challenges like “I’m not a robot” checkboxes.
To get started, go to the Google reCAPTCHA website and select reCAPTCHA v2 (checkbox) or reCAPTCHA v3 (invisible detection). Copy the generated Site Key and Secret Key, then add them to the settings of your form builder.
Many popular form plugins like WPForms and Contact Form 7 support reCAPTCHA. However, this feature can add some friction to the form submission process (for genuine visitors), and it’s not perfect.
An anti-spam plugin like Akismet can be more effective at blocking bots (more on this in a minute).
Add Honeypots
Honeypots are hidden form fields. They’re invisible to human users but detectable by bots. When a bot fills out the hidden field, the form submission is automatically flagged as spam.
Some form builders like Gravity Forms include built-in honeypot features. If you’re using Contact Form 7, there’s a dedicated honeypot plugin for it.
Use Form Validation & Rate Limiting
Proper form validation ensures that only correctly formatted inputs (like valid email addresses) are accepted. Meanwhile, rate limiting helps prevent bots from submitting forms repeatedly in a short period.
Once again, you’ll need to use a form builder that supports these features. Then, you can enable email validation to require proper formatting (e.g., name@example.com). You’ll also want to set rate limits to restrict excessive form submissions from the same IP address.
Restrict Form Access
If your website is targeted by bots from specific regions, restricting form access helps prevent unwanted submissions. You can use geolocation filtering or require authentication before allowing visitors to submit forms.
Geo Blocker for WordPress lets you restrict form access based on country. Depending on the plugin you use on your site, you might even be able to require visitors to log in before accessing certain forms.
Use Anti-Spam Plugins
Anti-spam plugins, like Akismet, work in the background to detect and filter out bot-generated spam. They analyze form submissions and block suspicious entries based on known spam patterns.
Unlike reCAPTCHA, Akismet does not interfere with the user experience. Your visitors won’t even know that you’re checking for possible bot behavior.
Akismet works for comment sections, forums, and any form on your website. It also boasts a 99.99 percent accuracy rate, making it more effective than most other bot-blocking strategies.
It doesn’t hurt to be extra cautious. Here are some advanced security measures for ecommerce websites and agencies:
Your hosting provider plays a key role in your site’s security. While you might opt for discount plans, more robust packages include advanced features to protect your site, which more than make up for added costs.
For example, managed WordPress hosting typically costs more than shared hosting plans, but you’ll get features like automated backups and malware scans. You’ll also want to look for providers that offer DDoS protection and 24/7 support.
Pressable offers all of the above. When you purchase a managed hosting plan, you’ll get the Jetpack Security plugin for free. This means you’ll have access to a firewall, real-time backups and activity logs, built-in 2FA, and other advanced security features.
Pressable also encrypts your website with an SSL certificate and automatically redirects all HTTP requests to the secure HTTPS version.
A firewall monitors your site’s traffic and blocks any suspicious requests. While you can add a WAF through a plugin like Jetpack, choosing a web host that provides this security tool will make your site more secure on the server level.
Pressable’s WAF blocks common attack vectors, like brute force attacks, DDoS attacks, and phishing attempts.
Plus, if your site experiences an attack, Pressable allows you to put it in defensive mode, which shows a challenge page to stop spam bots and DDoS requests. This page will only be visible to legitimate visitors for a very brief moment, so you won’t have to worry about it disrupting the user experience.
Behavioral analytics tools monitor how users interact with a website to determine if they’re human visitors or automated bots. They use machine learning and pattern recognition to detect suspicious activity.
For example, they might look at clicking and typing behavior. Bots typically perform repetitive, high-speed clicks, and fill forms instantly.
A popular behavioral analytics tool is Google reCAPTCHA v3. This assigns a risk score based on user behavior, without requiring humans to verify that they’re not robots.
Hackers often exploit insecure plugins and themes to gain unauthorized access or inject malware into your site. While we’ve already covered the importance of running updates, you’ll also want to regularly audit your plugins and themes to make sure that they’re still well-maintained.
If a plugin hasn’t been updated in the last six months, it likely contains security flaws like outdated code. In this case, you’d want to deactivate and delete it from your site.
It’s also important to remove any plugins you no longer need. This will reduce the number of potential vulnerabilities and improve your site speed.
This article mentioned a variety of security tools that help protect your WordPress website from bot attacks. Here’s a recap of these solutions, plus some additional options:
Jetpack Security is a comprehensive solution packed with all the features your website needs. These include brute-force protection, malware scanning (with one-click fixes), real-time backups, and a 30-day activity log archive.
With a Jetpack Security plan, you’ll also get Akismet Anti-Spam.
Pressable’s managed WordPress hosting plans come with Jetpack Security and other enhanced security features.
As mentioned earlier, ecommerce sites also need anti-fraud tools. Popular payment gateways like Stripe have their own software for detecting fraudulent transactions.
However, you might also want to install a plugin like Anti-Fraud for WooCommerce. This Woo extension lets you set up advanced verification protections, like billing address and customer behavior, and automatically blocks suspicious orders based on your specific configurations.
Additionally, you’ll need an anti-spam solution like Akismet or Google reCAPTCHA. These tools stop spammy content from reaching your website by running verification checks in the background.
Taking proactive measures to protect your WordPress site from bot attacks will save you money and stress. You won’t have to hire experts to troubleshoot problems and pay for repairs. And you won’t have to worry about a damaged reputation or eroded customer trust.
Security needs differ from site to site, but all businesses should implement measures like strong password policies and spam protection. Online stores should also invest in anti-fraud tools and features like rate limiting on checkout forms.
Now is the right time to audit your website’s security and take the necessary steps to safeguard your business. If you need help, an experienced team member at Pressable can walk you through the available protections that come with every hosting plan. Get in touch with us today!
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