Bot Traffic Surge from Lanzhou

A wave of unexpected bot traffic is affecting a wide range of websites, from small publishers to US federal agencies. Affected sites are reporting unusual spikes in automated traffic.

Origin of the Traffic

Preliminary investigations indicate that this suspicious traffic is linked to IP addresses located in Lanzhou, China. The nature and purpose of this activity remain unknown at this time.

Implications and Countermeasures

The increase in bot traffic can have several negative consequences, including bandwidth consumption, website performance degradation, and distortion of analytics metrics. System administrators are advised to carefully monitor traffic and implement appropriate mitigation measures, such as blocking suspicious IP addresses and using bot detection systems.