Five-Star Security for Website Visitors

Sorting the good bots from the bad

Success brings other challenges. Brazil is one of the biggest territories for cybercriminals after the United States and high-profile online businesses, such as ReclameAQUI, can be a target. Diego Campos, Chief Technology Officer at ReclameAQUI, says. “About 10 years ago, the main threat was a DDoS attack. But these days the biggest challenge is the volume of bot traffic that visits the site.”

Initially, Campos and his team made sure that the website was SEO-friendly, freely enabling bots from Google and other sites to index pages and content. The same goes for advertising network bots and other software that contributes to the online business ecosystem.

But not all bots are benign. Many scrape the website for content and data including company reviews, contact details, and pricing information. This can have a negative impact on site performance. “Humans normally browse a few pages at a time, whereas bots can infiltrate the entire website,” says Campos.

Even more menacing are bots that attempt to access password-protected information reserved for customers and businesses. Using stolen usernames and passwords, these attacks attempt to unlock confidential information that could be used for fraud and other data-related crimes. 

To protect the business from harmful bot traffic while keeping the door open to search engine crawlers, Campos turned to Akamai Bot Manager. It includes a continually updated database of bot categories that enables ReclameAQUI to distinguish between human traffic, business-friendly bots, and their harmful cousins.  

The software monitors traffic at the edge of ReclameAQUI’s networks and enables the business to respond automatically according to the threat level. This includes steering SEO-crawlers to high-performance servers, blocking the most suspicious activities, or even serving up alternative content to bots that threaten to slow down the website. 

Living with legislation

“We live in a world where people are more concerned than ever about data privacy,” says Campos. “Akamai ensures that both consumers and businesses are fully protected from unauthorized access to protected information on our website.” 

With Akamai deployed, ReclameAQUI was fully prepared for the Brazilian General Data Protection Act (LGPD). The legislation, which recently came into force, set rules for the collecting, handling, and sharing of personal data managed by organizations. 

“Akamai plays an important role in our compliance with LGPD. As well as safeguarding us from financial penalties, it shows that we take the security of our customers and businesses seriously,” says Campos. “Greater confidence generates greater turnover,” he adds. 

Campos also stresses the impact of the Akamai support team. “The Akamai team really knows what they are talking about. It’s not just the quality of the software that stands out, it’s the people who deal with the software on a day-to-day basis. They are essential to our success.”

This includes taking time to understand the challenges facing ReclameAQUI as the business grows. “They are honest about what they can do and how they can help. If they don’t think the problem can be solved by their product, they’ll find another team that can help us. We are a fast-moving, fast-growing business, but I always know that Akamai has our back.”

Security that safeguards the business — without fail

In the six years that ReclameAQUI has worked with Akamai, its solutions have worked without fail. This includes Akamai’s content delivery network (CDN), one of the world’s largest networks of geographically distributed and interconnected servers, with thousands of points of presence in Brazil that deliver cached content from servers closest to the user. This accelerates page delivery and ensures that ReclameAQUI website visitors can post reviews and feedback quickly and without interruption.

“Akamai pretty much invented CDNs. Whenever I meet with my peers, we never have a bad word to say about their people and the software. It’s all positive,” says Campos.

The credibility and reputation of Akamai’s software is also important “You can just deploy Akamai and leave the software to get on with protecting the business. For a busy CTO who needs to get the most from budgets and resources, it’s the best possible result,” says Campos. 

Finally, Campo stresses the quality of Akamai’s products. “I’m impressed by the design and engineering of their technology. The quality is second to none. If you are serious about protecting your business, clients, and growth model, you should consider working with Akamai.”