Security Wiki

A risk score condenses many independent signals into one number expressing how likely a request is automated or fraudulent, the basis for graduated responses.

A scalper bot automatically buys limited, high-demand inventory (concert tickets, sneakers, consoles) faster than any human, for resale at a markup.

A screen reader converts on-screen content into speech or braille for blind and low-vision users, and a common failure point for CAPTCHA and verification flows.

A sneaker bot is automation built to buy limited-edition releases faster than any human, clearing drops in seconds for the resale market.

A sniper bot places a winning bid or claim in the final instant of an auction or sale window, beating every human reaction time by design.

A synthetic account is built on a fabricated identity that blends real and invented data, designed to pass verification and age into a trusted profile.

A ticket bot is automation that buys event tickets in bulk the moment sales open, feeding a resale market at inflated prices, and it is widely outlawed.

A VPN routes traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a remote server, hiding the user's IP address, a privacy tool that complicates IP-based security.

A WAF inspects HTTP traffic and filters requests that match attack patterns like SQL injection and XSS, a distinct layer from bot management.

A web cookie is a small piece of data a website stores in the browser to remember state, the mechanism behind sessions, preferences, and tracking.

Account takeover is a form of identity fraud in which an attacker gains control of a legitimate user account and exploits it for financial gain.

Ad fraud is the practice of generating fake ad impressions, clicks, or conversions to steal advertising budgets, most of it executed by bots at scale.

Agentic fraud is online fraud executed by AI agents that plan and adapt across multi-step schemes like account creation, abuse, and monetization, autonomously.

An AI agent is software that uses a language model to plan and carry out multi-step tasks on its own, including operating websites through a real browser.

An AI crawler is a bot that collects web content to train or feed AI models, a new crawler class that forces sites to rethink who may copy what.

An anti-detect browser is a modified browser that spoofs fingerprints and manages many separate identities, a staple of fraud and multi-account abuse.

An invisible CAPTCHA verifies that a visitor is human in the background, without a puzzle; a challenge only appears when signals indicate automation.

An IP address is the numerical identifier that routes traffic to a device on a network, and one of the most used, and most overrated, security signals.

An OTP bot is an automated calling or messaging tool that tricks victims into revealing one-time passcodes, letting attackers bypass two-factor authentication.

API abuse is the misuse of an application's programming interfaces by bots and attackers, bypassing the web frontend to attack the logic directly.