In today’s digital landscape, the threat of malicious bots and botnets looms large over the retail industry. Manipulated by cybercriminals, these devices and networks can wreak havoc on your e-commerce platform and disrupt your customers’ experience.

Bots and botnets are able to vigilantly monitor your inventory for must-have items, pretend to be customers, and swiftly buy up your inventory (before your actual customers have a chance to) — often reselling the items at inflated prices on third-party websites.

Botnets are everywhere, and this type of activity happens all the time. This practice not only impacts your sales, but it also creates a negative customer experience for customers who are eager to buy the latest and greatest item, only to find that it is already sold out. Retailers are not only left to deal with frustrated customers, but often also find themselves processing numerous returns if the bad actors fail to resell the items. The only people who benefit from this trend are the cybercriminals.

The Crucial Role Digital Identity Plays In Combating Botnets

The key to fighting back against bots and botnets is to quickly identify and authenticate those behind online activities. For example, retailers must quickly discern whether their products are being purchased by a legitimate, loyal customer who has been eagerly waiting for a new product release — or by an impersonal, automated bot from the darknet.

To do this, you need the ability to examine contextual identity information and use it to make informed decisions. At the same time, rather than burdening your legitimate customers with onerous authentication steps, you need to make sure the process is invisible. This involves striking a careful balance between customer experience and security.

Beating the Bots With Identity and Access Management (IAM)

ForgeRock’s enterprise-grade digital identity platform enables you to identify and stop bots and botnets without driving away your real customers. With ForgeRock Intelligent Authentication, you can use AI-driven threat detection, plus a range of environmental, contextual, and behavioral factors, to make authentication and authorization decisions in real time — unmasking the bots. Intelligent Access also adapts login and checkout journeys to make them more challenging and complicated when there’s a suspected bot. Adversely, legitimate, authenticated customers are able to check out without any hurdles whatsoever.

Don’t let retail bots and botnets ruin your customers’ experiences or your bottom line. Get an in-depth examination of how a retail bot works and how you can leverage ForgeRock to defend against bots today and as they evolve in the future by reading Block the Bots to Keep Your Customers Coming Back.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Forgerock Blog authored by Wayne Blacklock. Read the original post at: https://www.forgerock.com/blog/protect-your-retail-business-against-malicious-bots-and-botnets