Fastly, Inc. (NYSE: FSLY), a leader in global edge cloud platforms, today announced a new update to Fastly Bot Management, delivering three key features that help organisations defend against scraping, account takeovers, and spam. For too long, websites have relied on frustrating CAPTCHAs to combat these threats leading to poor user experiences and lost conversions. Fastly’s update gives organisations the chance to break free from the CAPTCHA cycle while helping to prevent fraud, protect customer accounts, and allow legitimate users to complete logins and checkouts without disruption.

Traditional security solutions often force users to endure tedious interactive challenges like CAPTCHAs to stop threats like account takeovers, fraudulent transactions, data scraping, and spam abuse. These measures not only disrupt the user experience but can also drive customers away. Fastly’s new Dynamic Challenges, Advanced Client-Side Detection, and Compromised Credential Checking capabilities help organisations eliminate that trade-off, enabling them to stop even the most evasive bots without creating unnecessary friction for paying customers and legitimate users.

“Security teams shouldn’t have to choose between blocking malicious bots and frustrating customers,” said Kip Compton, Chief Product Officer at Fastly. “This update allows users to move freely while bad actors get stopped in their tracks.”

Fastly Bot Management Feature Updates

• Dynamic Challenges fine-tunes how organisations validate traffic without relying on CAPTCHAs. Using real-time analysis of client and server-side characteristics, Fastly applies the least intrusive verification method for legitimate users while increasing difficulty for bots. Users verified via Private Access Tokens (PATs) experience a seamless, challenge-free login. Known bots receive the most difficult interactive challenges, while all other traffic undergoes non-interactive verification to maintain security without disrupting users. By automatically adjusting protections, Dynamic Challenges prevents security teams from having to choose between blocking threats and preserving the end-user experience.

• Advanced Client-Side Detection makes it easy to spot advanced bots that disguise themselves as legitimate traffic. Attackers increasingly use headless browsers and automation tools to mimic real users, evading server-side detection. With just one line of JavaScript code, organisations can identify and block these sophisticated bots before they cause damage. The lightweight implementation empowers organisations to provide protection without performance trade-offs, and gives security teams instant visibility into automated threats.

• Compromised Credential Checking helps businesses fight back against account takeover and credential stuffing attacks. Cybercriminals exploit stolen credentials from data breaches and leaked databases to gain unauthorised access to user accounts. Fastly’s solution automatically scans login and registration attempts against known compromised credentials, adding a critical layer of intelligence to security decision-making. When a match occurs, security teams gain real-time signals to respond swiftly—without adding friction for legitimate users.

“By fast-tracking legitimate users and deploying interactive challenges only when necessary, Fastly significantly reduces reliance on CAPTCHAs, improving user experience and boosting conversion rates,” added Compton. “Businesses no longer have to compromise between security and usability; Fastly’s intelligent bot management brings frictionless protection at scale.”

“As bots continue to become more sophisticated, organisations find themselves stuck between providing enhanced security or an enhanced end-user experience. The latest updates, alongside Fastly’s developer-focused approach, enable companies to detect and respond to bots while providing end-users with an optimal experience,” said Christopher Rodriguez, Research Director, Security & Trust, IDC.

Fastly Bot Management is available to all Fastly customers. Visit here for more information on the Fastly Bot Management product.