The Grinch Bot is Stealing Christmas!

The Stopping Grinch Bots Act is a new legislation aimed at stopping holiday hoarders on the internet. The Grinch Bot is a program that makes automated requests to different websites, particularly during the holiday season when it attempts to purchase items before humans can complete their orders. It strikes first around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, leveraging its speed and efficiency to buy large quantities of exclusive items in seconds. Businesses are vulnerable to these attacks as nearly 44% of internet traffic comes from bad bots. Cloudflare has observed over 300 billion attempts by bots to "add to cart" during the year, with trillions more caught earlier in their efforts by Bot Management and security solutions. On Black Friday, Cloudflare blocked over 150 billion threats. To combat this issue, Cloudflare offers a free tool called Bot Fight Mode that stops bots and makes them pay through tarpit challenges and carbon offsetting tree planting.