How can I prevent bots from attacking my email database?
Summary
What email marketers say14Marketer opinions
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests contacting Sailthru support and implementing a honeypot in addition to ReCaptcha to combat bot attacks on signup forms and Sailthru-hosted pages.
Email marketer from Security Newsletter suggests monitoring website traffic for unusual patterns, such as spikes in signup requests from specific IP addresses or locations, to identify and block bot activity.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests adding a second email field to the form, requiring users to type their email address twice and disabling copy/paste functionality.
Email marketer from Reddit suggests using honeypot fields (hidden fields that are only visible to bots) on forms to trap bots and prevent them from submitting data to the database.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Pro Blog explains that implementing double opt-in requires users to confirm their email address before being added to the database, which can significantly reduce the number of bot sign-ups.
Email marketer from Medium explains that implementing rate limiting can restrict the number of requests from a single IP address within a specific time frame, preventing bots from overwhelming the system with submissions.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that Sailthru may disable triggered emails with low delivery rates if double opt-in is used and a high volume of bot sign-ups is present, potentially impacting legitimate customers.
Email marketer from Stack Overflow suggests implementing thorough input validation on all form fields to prevent bots from injecting malicious code or submitting invalid data to the database.
Email marketer from Quora answers that using JavaScript challenges can help differentiate between humans and bots, as bots often struggle to execute JavaScript code correctly.
Email marketer from Cloudflare explains that using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with bot management capabilities can identify and block malicious bots based on their behavior and patterns, protecting the database from automated attacks.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that implementing Recaptcha, hidden fields on forms with non-standard names (discarding leads if filled), and double opt-in can help mitigate bot attacks, although double opt-in might spam users with confirmation messages.
Email marketer from Security Forum suggests using device fingerprinting to identify and block bots based on their unique hardware and software configurations.
Email marketer from Website Security Blog explains that hiding signup forms behind a login or requiring users to perform a specific action before accessing the form can deter bots from submitting data.
Email marketer from Webmaster Forum suggests using email verification services to check the validity of email addresses before adding them to the database, preventing bots from submitting fake or disposable email addresses.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, shares that validating email addresses at the point of entry and using tools to identify disposable email addresses can prevent bots from using fake or temporary emails to sign up and pollute the database.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that implementing robust form security measures, such as CAPTCHAs and honeypots, can effectively prevent bots from submitting data and attacking the email database.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests storing the referrer URL to facilitate the deletion of problematic entries later.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests moving the form's location, as bots may be directly targeting its URL.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Akamai shares that using behavioral analysis to detect patterns of bot activity, such as rapid form submissions and suspicious user-agent strings, can help prevent bots from attacking the email database.
Documentation from Project Honey Pot explains that deploying honeypots and using their tracking tools can help identify and block spambots, preventing them from accessing and polluting your email database.
Documentation from Cybersecurity Company shares that regularly updating bot signatures and blacklists can help identify and block known malicious bots from accessing the email database.
Documentation from OWASP shares that implementing strong CAPTCHAs, using rate limiting on API endpoints, and monitoring for suspicious activity can effectively prevent automated attacks on email databases.
Documentation from Google reCAPTCHA answers that using reCAPTCHA v3 provides a risk score for each request, allowing you to identify and filter out bot traffic without requiring user interaction, thus protecting the database from automated submissions.