Hack the Web Without a Browser
It is a classic problem. You want data for use in your program but it is on a webpage. Some websites have an API, of course, but usually, you are …read more Continue reading Hack the Web Without a Browser
Category Archives: web scraping
Bad bot activity on sports betting websites rises during Euro 2020
Across Europe, the EURO 2020 tournament captivated fans over the past month, with Italy ultimately defeating England to take home the cup on July 11. As fans eagerly watched the matches, Imperva Research Labs was busy monitoring activity that wasn’t ha… Continue reading Bad bot activity on sports betting websites rises during Euro 2020
Infographic: How Are Bad Bots Hurting Your Business?
Bad bots are software applications which run automated tasks with malicious intent over the internet. They scrape data from sites without permission in order to reuse it and gain a competitive edge (e.g. pricing, inventory levels, proprietary content, … Continue reading Infographic: How Are Bad Bots Hurting Your Business?
Reality Check: Automated Shopping Bots are a Business Problem
Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in a webinar on automated shopping bots with Sandy Carielli, Security and Risk Analyst at Forrester Research. The webinar highlighted two things for me: automated shopping bots are a complex problem and th… Continue reading Reality Check: Automated Shopping Bots are a Business Problem
Job Application Script Automates The Boring Stuff With Python
Job hunting can certainly require a good amount of hoop-jumping in today’s age. Even if you’re lucky enough to have your application read by an actual human, there’s no guarantee the person on the other end has much of an understanding about your skill set. Oftentimes, the entire procedure is …read more
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DC Court Ruling Reduces Webscraping Risk
In a decision that reduces some risk associated with webscraping, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that violating a website’s terms of service cannot alone be the basis for a finding that the conduct is “… Continue reading DC Court Ruling Reduces Webscraping Risk
Quick Hit: Scraping javascript-“enabled” Sites with {htmlunit}
I’ve mentioned {htmlunit} in passing before, but did not put any code in the blog post. Since I just updated {htmlunitjars} to the latest and greatest version, now might be a good time to do a quick demo of it. The {htmlunit}/{htmunitjars} packag… Continue reading Quick Hit: Scraping javascript-“enabled” Sites with {htmlunit}
Facebook suit accuses two Ukrainians of distributing adware disguised as quizzes
Facebook has accused two Ukrainian men of using quiz apps on the social media platform to inject malicious software on people’s computers, according to a lawsuit first noticed by the Daily Beast. By installing software extensions that masqueraded as Facebook quizzes, users unwittingly allowed the two men to inject advertisements into their news feeds and access their lists of friends, according to the lawsuit. That information then was exfiltrated to servers outside the country. The two men, Andrey Gorbahov and Gleb Sluchevsky, are Kiev-based entrepreneurs affiliated with a company called the Web Sun Group. The company did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast Friday, and its website appeared to be down by Monday. “In total, Defendants compromised approximately 63,000 browsers used by Facebook users and caused over $75,000 in damages to Facebook,” the company claims in the lawsuit. The activity lasted from 2016 until October 2018 and primarily […]
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splashr 0.6.0 Now Uses the CRAN-nascent stevedore Package for Docker Orchestration
The splashr package [srht|GL|GH] — an alternative to Selenium for javascript-enabled/browser-emulated web scraping — is now at version 0.6.0 (still in dev-mode but on its way to CRAN in the next 14 days). The major change from ver… Continue reading splashr 0.6.0 Now Uses the CRAN-nascent stevedore Package for Docker Orchestration
‘data:’ Scraping & Chart Reproduction : Arrows of Environmental Destruction
Today’s RSS feeds picked up this article by Marianne Sullivan, Chris Sellers, Leif Fredrickson, and Sarah Lamdanon on the woeful state of enforcement actions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While there has definitely been overr… Continue reading ‘data:’ Scraping & Chart Reproduction : Arrows of Environmental Destruction