Web scraping. A vital tool for your business, a legal minefield, or a means for malign agents to extract your company’s important data? As a way to collect data from websites, it’s all of these things. But knowing exactly what web scraping is, its benefits, and how it can be used to attack your business is the answer. And you’re in the right place, as we’re going to cover all of these things below.
The Web Scraping Process
Webscraping is the process of extracting unstructured data from a website and storing it in a structured format. The idea is that once the data is structured, it can be analyzed and interrogated to gather important insights. Web scraping software, which typically works via proxy servers, makes the process streamlined and efficient. Cloud-based scraping software is also an option, as are self-built scrapers, although the latter requires a high level of technical expertise to create.
Common Legal Uses of Web Scraping
There are lots of legal ways that businesses may use web scraping. Some of the most common of these include:
- Market research – such as competitor analysis, extracting SEC filings, and stock price monitoring.
- Monitoring e-commerce trends – this can help with understanding buyer behavior, monitoring prices, and tracking stock availability.
- Lead generation – to identify contact information, allowing businesses to reach new potential customers.
- Sentiment analysis – web scrapers can track public sentiment by analysing publicly available information on, for example, social media platforms.
Generally speaking, web scraping is legal if the information “scraped” is publicly available, provided it did not infringe the rights of another person or entity, and the data is not used to steal market share by, for example, creating a virtually identical product.
Illegal Web Scraping Practices
As you can see, there are many benefits to undertaking web scraping. But, as with any tool, it can be used for ill as well as good, and may even pose a serious digital security risk to your business. To underline the seriousness of the threat, it’s estimated that online businesses lose 2% of their potential revenue annually to web scraping. It can also be deployed to create a cloned version of your business’s website, posing as the real thing to trick your customers into parting with their cash or handing over their payment details.
A targeted web scraping attack usually involves the perpetrator creating a fake user account to hide their IP address and make it seem as if their scraping bots are benign, rather than malicious. This makes detecting a scraping attack difficult without the right protection in place.
Once the web scraping attack is initiated, the target website is overrun with the bad bots, which, as an additional nuisance, can result in extended website downtime and poor performance. But the real aim of the scrapers is to extract proprietary data and content, to be stored in the cybercriminal’s own database and used for nefarious purposes at a later date.
Best Tactics to Prevent Web Scraping
While web scraping attacks may present a real and present danger, there are plenty of steps businesses can take to prevent them. Firstly, it’s important to be aware of the signs of a scraping attack. These typically include:
- High volume of server requests.
- Sudden spike in traffic, especially from a specific IP address or unknown source.
- Repeated attempts to access non-public pages or hidden sections of your website.
To prevent a web scraping attack in the first place, it’s a good idea to deploy the strategies below.
IP Blocking and Rate Limiting
This involves monitoring online traffic to block suspicious IP ranges or addresses and restricting how many requests a single IP can make in a certain timeframe. This could mean allowing only ten requests per user per minute, and is an effective way to preempt a web scraping attack.
Use a Web Application Firewall
A WAF (web application firewall) works by filtering incoming traffic. Advanced versions of these firewalls often feature bot detection tools for additional protection.
Deploy Web Scraping Detection Software
Using web scraping software is an efficient, convenient way to protect your business from unwanted scraping. The best software is powered by AI to provide intuitive, real-time protection to block both legal and illegal attempts at scraping, and control which large language models (LLMs) can train on your content, if any.
Don’t Forget CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA challenges can be put in place to prevent malicious bots from gaining access to and harvesting your company’s data. While not entirely foolproof, these provide an additional layer of defence. It’s best to deploy CAPTCHA on website login pages and high-value content areas. Adaptive versions of the system are available that only trigger when suspicious traffic is detected.
Top Tools to block Web Scraping
| Tool | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| DataDome | Fast, ML-based, API protection, frictionless UX | Overblocking risks, |
| Kasada | Strong anti-automation, deception, no CAPTCHAs | JS reliance, expensive, limited APIs |
| Reblaze | Cloud-agnostic, customizable, all-in-one security | Steeper learning curve, UI/UX limitations |
| F5 Bot Defense | Fraud-focused, integrates well with F5 infra, biometrics | Costly, slower to deploy, vendor lock-in |
Generally the best way to guard against a web scraping attack is by making the most of specialized software, designed specifically to offer high-quality, consistent protection against these threats. An example of such a solution is that offered by DataDome, which uses AI to detect and prevent scraping attacks in real time before they can get underway. The software offers customizable protection and access to detailed reports to get insights into attempted attacks.
If you’re looking for software to guard against web scraping, consider choosing an option that provides versatile, reliable protection for your digital assets and that is constantly updated. New or updated bots pose constantly changing threats, and any software you use must be able to quickly adapt to these.
The True Cost to Businesses of Data Scraping
Business Risks and Revenue Impact
Web scraping does more than drain budgets; it directly affects revenue and operations:
- Revenue Loss: A study found that scraping imposes a median annual business impact of 8.1% of website revenue for eCommerce firms and up to 11.6% for travel companies
- Infrastructure Strain: For example, Freelancer.com suffered major site slowdowns and lost revenue after a scraper bot flooded it with 3.5 million requests in four hours
- Competitive Threat: 26% of financial organizations say web scraping brings the greatest impact on revenue out of all data collection methods, ranking just below internal data use
- Security & Analytics: 22% of web traffic can be attributed to scrapers, skewing analytics and intensifying security demands
Notable Industry Examples
- Airlines and ticketing websites have seen scraping traffic jump from 9% to 27% of all visits, prompting pricing and business model changes in response to revenue loss.
- Companies like e.fundamentals tripled in size by leveraging scraped data but incurred significant technology and bandwidth expenses (according to this research).
While the lure of big data is strong, businesses must weigh these real and often hidden costs before venturing into or defending against web scraping.
Protecting Against Web Scraping is Easier Than You Think
The fact of web scraping is something that no business can afford to ignore. While there are many examples of “good” scraping bots, the number of “bad” bots, with malicious intentions, is steeply rising. These are causing inordinate problems for businesses, who may be unsure exactly how to guard against them.
Luckily, there’s no need to possess advanced technical expertise to defend against the threat of web scraping, whether you want to block your competitors from tracking your prices or cybercrooks from harvesting your customers’ sensitive data.
Use the guide above to put in place the protection your website needs, from web application firewalls to vital software designed to detect web scraping attacks and stop them in their tracks. Deploying a mix of common sense practices and advanced software solutions is the perfect way to outsmart the scrapers and safeguard your site.
A seasoned technology executive with a proven record of developing and executing innovative strategies to scale high-growth SaaS platforms and enterprise solutions. As a hands-on CTO and systems architect, he combines technical excellence with visionary leadership to drive organizational success.
