Bots, AI Models, and the New Era of Digital Property Protection

Introduction: Protecting Digital Assets from Modern Bots

In 2013 and 2014, large-scale hacks of companies like Target and Home Depot revealed how vulnerable financial and personal data could be to cybercrime. Today, attacks like that still occur, but companies have become better at detecting and defending against them. Fast forward to 2025, and we face a similar problem—except the new target isn’t just financial data. It’s intellectual property (IP).

Modern AI bots are crawling websites not to steal credit card numbers but to consume knowledge. AI models need vast amounts of data to learn and improve, and this demand has put websites with valuable content—like software services companies—at risk of being harvested without consent.

While reading this article on Ars Technica by Ashley Belanger, I learned about how some site owners are fighting back by using “tarpits” like Nepenthes. This tool traps AI bots in an infinite loop of meaningless data, wasting their resources in retaliation for unauthorized crawling. It’s a symbolic act of resistance, but it got me thinking about how companies can use more strategic and long-term methods to protect their digital assets.

The good news is that many of the security techniques used to prevent traditional bot abuse can also protect against AI-driven crawling. However, companies must also rethink how they present their content, ensuring that the knowledge harvested by AI reflects the version of your business you want others to see.

Here’s how businesses can structure their strategy with three key layers of protection and awareness.

Layer 1: Use Security Software Judiciously

The first step is to apply security controls to prevent abusive scraping of sensitive or proprietary content. This isn’t about shutting down all bots—after all, search engine crawlers like Googlebot are essential for visibility—but protecting resources you don’t want to give away for free.

Examples of sensitive content include:

  • Customer case studies that reveal your proprietary approaches.
  • Product documentation that competitors could misuse.
  • Support articles with deep insights into how your solutions address problems.

Fortunately, many traditional bot protection methods can still work against AI scrapers, including:

  1. Rate limiting – Restrict the number of requests from a single IP address within a short timeframe.
  2. CAPTCHAs – Challenge suspicious visitors to verify they’re human.
  3. Behavioral analysis – Identify and block traffic that doesn’t behave like a human user.
  4. Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) – Automatically block bots with known malicious patterns or IP addresses.
  5. Honeypots – Use hidden links or fields to trap bots that don’t respect your website’s structure.

By using these tools strategically, you can mitigate abusive traffic without compromising performance or access for legitimate visitors.

Layer 2: Know Who is Crawling Your Site and How to Respond

Not all bots are created equal. Some are outright malicious, while others, such as AI crawlers, may simply seek content to train models. The challenge is distinguishing between these bots to decide how you want to respond.

Steps to Identify and Manage Bot Traffic

  1. Analyze Server Logs
    • Check for unusual traffic patterns, high-frequency requests, or repeated access to sensitive URLs.
    • Identify bot signatures through user-agent strings or request headers.
  2. Determine Intent
    • Is the bot from a legitimate search engine like Google or Bing?
    • Is it an AI bot from a known company like OpenAI, or a nameless scraper with no respect for robots.txt?
  3. Develop a Response Plan
    • Malicious bots may warrant hard blocks through firewalls and IP bans.
    • For AI crawlers, you may allow limited access while monitoring and throttling their activity.
    • For persistent abuse, explore legal avenues such as cease-and-desist letters if the crawler violates your terms of service.

By understanding your traffic, you can create tailored strategies to balance access and protection, preserving both your resources and your control over sensitive information.

Layer 3: Control the Narrative of Your Digital Presence

Perhaps the most important question to ask is: What story does your content tell to AI models?

When AI bots crawl your site, they may consume a wide range of content, such as:

  • Product briefs that outline your key offerings.
  • Customer success stories that highlight your expertise.
  • Financial reports that describe your business performance.
  • Bios of your leadership team that frame your corporate values.

This content may seem harmless in isolation, but think about how a large language model (LLM) might summarize it when prompted by a customer, prospective employee, or competitor. Will the AI present a complete and accurate picture of your company? Or will it reinforce outdated, misleading, or poorly positioned information?

Proactive Content Strategy for AI-readiness

  • Keep content up to date – Regularly audit and revise your public-facing information.
  • Clarify key messaging – Ensure your most important pages reflect the core narrative you want to share.
  • Anticipate AI-driven queries – Imagine what users might ask AI models about your business, and tailor content to address these questions directly.

In a world where AI systems can act as intermediaries between your business and the public, curating your content proactively becomes essential.

Conclusion: The Need for IP Strategies

As AI technologies continue to evolve, intellectual property will become an even more valuable asset. Companies need to think carefully about who has access to their data and under what circumstances.

Security controls can reduce unauthorized access, but they may not solve the bigger question: How do we get AI model owners to compensate companies for IP access? While that topic is beyond the scope of this post, it’s something that businesses, governments, and the tech industry will need to tackle in the coming years.

For now, the best strategy is to layer your defenses:

  1. Use security controls to guard sensitive data.
  2. Analyze bot activity to understand who is accessing your site and why.
  3. Curate your content to ensure AI systems represent your business accurately.

By taking these steps, you’ll protect your digital presence and control how your brand’s knowledge is used in an AI-driven world.

Closing Thoughts

The rise of AI bots may seem like a new problem, but it’s really a continuation of an old one. The difference is that knowledge has become the new currency. Companies that recognize this shift and implement smart strategies will not only safeguard their intellectual property but also influence how AI systems—and the world—perceive their business.

What’s your experience with AI bots and scrapers? How are you managing access to your content? Reach out and lets chat!