Using IP Alerts To Detect Automated Bot Attacks
Sep 20, 2021
IP Alerts watch the traffic to your website, tracking the activity of specific IP addresses and telling you when they start abusing your website resources. The criminals behind automated bot attacks usually want to get in and get out before they are even noticed. Consequently, they hit your server hard, sometime even DDoSing you as they scan your website.
Because Google doesn’t show you bot traffic, the average website owner doesn’t even know bot attacks are happening. Even if google did show bot traffic, nobody has the time to continuously monitor the analytics to see when automated bot attacks are hitting their server. That’s why we invented IP Alerts in Turnstil.Cloud.
Using Turnstil’s IP Alerts, you set a request threshold, and Turnstil.Cloud alerts you if an individual IP address goes above this threshold in a set time period. Turnstil.Cloud's AI will also suggest a recommended threshold for you to use, though you can override this threshold with your own custom setting if necessary.
To set an IP Alert in Turnstil.Cloud:
1. Visit the IP Alerts Pane & Enable IP Alerts.
2. Click the “Use Recommended” Option.
Turnstil.Cloud Updates the IP Alerts threshold to an AI deduced value based on analysis of your website’s past traffic.
3. Click Use Advanced Options to further refine your IP Alert Threshold setting.
4. Choose a notification type (available to Business and Enterprise plans only).
5. Click the Save Button to save your new IP Alert.
If an individual IP passes this threshold in a set time period (15 minutes, as of writing), Turnstil.Cloud will alert you so you can login, analyze the IP and stop the attack, if necessary.
Turnstil.Cloud IP Alerts also provide a handy record of traffic events on your website that you can look back on if necessary. A list of events is always available directly in the Turnstil.Cloud App's IP Alert area. Scanning the list of IPs will often show you patterns and let you quickly locate IP Addresses to challenge or ban.
You can also receive an email with the details of the event. The image below is an example of a Turnstil.Cloud IP Alert email:
