Cloudflare launches Adaptive Intelligence to rewrite bot rules on the fly

Cloudflare has introduced Adaptive Intelligence, an advanced detection engine in its Bot Management system that actively creates and discards blocking rules during an attack. This engine learns continuously from the vast amount of traffic passing through Cloudflare's network, which handles more than a trillion web visits daily. The rules generated by Adaptive Intelligence are specific, short-lived, and rotated frequently to stay ahead of attackers.

The cost of renting botnets has significantly decreased, making it easier for attackers to scale their operations. Traditional security tools rely on periodic updates that may take weeks or months to deploy, leaving a gap that attackers can exploit. Cloudflare's CTO, Dane Knecht, emphasized that building stronger walls is ineffective when the cost of scaling an attack is near-zero. Adaptive Intelligence aims to maintain a constant state of movement, rendering any bypass techniques obsolete before they can scale.

The engine analyzes behavior patterns across various timeframes simultaneously, allowing it to detect slow campaigns that often go unnoticed due to rate limits. These campaigns include prolonged credential stuffing and scraping operations. Cloudflare's Precursor system, which tracks user interactions across a session, provides additional context to the engine for better decision-making.

By combining session signals and telemetry from its global edge, Adaptive Intelligence can assess visitor intent beyond simple binary pass or fail.

New detections in Adaptive Intelligence are validated against live traffic before deployment, ensuring accuracy and minimizing false positives without causing downtime. As automation becomes more prevalent in cyber attacks and web traffic, Cloudflare's Adaptive Intelligence addresses the evolving landscape effectively. The product is currently available for Cloudflare Bot Management customers, with pricing details yet to be disclosed.