Fare scraping refers to the unauthorized extraction of airline fare data from APIs and websites. This often involves using automated software, or bots, to collect vast amounts of pricing information from travel aggregator sites and airline APIs and web pages. While the intent behind fare scraping can vary, it is primarily used to compare prices, conduct market research, or enhance proprietary tools with customized search results.
What is Fare Scraping?
Fare scraping attacks on airline APIs occur when bots or malicious actors use automated tools to extract pricing information (fares) from airline websites or their APIs. These attacks target the real-time flight pricing data airlines make available through their APIs for legitimate purposes, such as flight searches and booking.
In a fare scraping attack, the attackers might exploit these APIs to:
- Gather competitive intelligence: Competitors or third parties scrape fare data to monitor and compare prices across airlines without permission.
- Data harvesting for resale: Scrapers collect fare data to resell it to travel agencies, price comparison websites, or other platforms.
- Distort market data: By excessively scraping fares, attackers may overload the API, leading to slower responses or even downtime, which can distort the airline’s pricing strategy.
- Price manipulation and detection: Automated scraping can help attackers detect pricing patterns or errors and exploit them for personal gain.
This type of attack not only consumes bandwidth and resources but can also lead to revenue loss, inaccurate pricing displays, and potential reputation damage for airlines. To mitigate fare scraping, airlines often use Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), rate-limiting, CAPTCHAs, and other bot-detection mechanisms.
How does fare scraping happen?
Fare scraping utilizes specialized tools or programs to systematically and rapidly retrieve data from APIs and web pages. These scrapers mimic human browsing behavior to bypass basic security measures, accessing information about airfare, lodging, and rental car costs from multiple sources. Although scraping can be resourceful for data collection, unauthorized use may breach website terms of service, leading to potential legal consequences.
Fare Scraping Examples;
Several real-world scenarios illustrate the impact and methods of fare-scraping attacks.
One common example involves third-party travel websites scraping data to provide consumers with a comprehensive view of fare differences across various airlines. This includes collecting real-time pricing to offer competitive alternatives or recommend optimal booking times based on price trends.
Another instance is niche market players that leverage scraped data to create specialized fare alerts or notifications for users, which can bypass fairness in competition and impact airline revenue models.
In some cases, rival companies may also engage in scraping activities to gather competitive intelligence, analyze pricing strategies, or identify market trends.
Each of these examples underscores the potential for data misuse and economic disruption in the airline industry.
What is the Impact on Airlines?
Fare scraping attacks on airline websites and APIs can have severe consequences, impacting not only their pricing strategies but also their overall operations.
- Revenue Loss: Fare scraping can lead to significant revenue loss for airlines. Scraped data may be used by competitors to undercut pricing strategies, affecting the airline’s ability to maintain competitive fares and customer loyalty.
- Overage Fees: Most airlines use a third-party service to manage their flight schedules and bookings. When they have too many schedule lookups, they pay fees for the overages.
- Server Overload: The frequent requests made by scraping bots can place undue pressure on an airline’s servers. This can result in slower website performance, downtime, and a poor user experience for legitimate customers seeking to book flights.
- Distorted Market Perception: Scraped fare data can be presented out of context, leading to distortions in how consumers perceive the airline’s market offerings. This might result in misinformation, dissatisfied customers, and damage to the airline’s brand reputation.
By understanding and addressing these challenges, airlines can protect their revenue streams, ensure optimal server performance, and maintain a positive market perception.
Preventing fare scraping
To mitigate the risks of fare scraping, airlines can implement several effective strategies that help protect their data and maintain operational efficiency.
- Use of Anti-Scraping and Bot Detection Technology: Deploying advanced anti-scraping and anti-bot solutions can help detect and block unauthorized scraping activities in real time. These technologies can identify suspicious patterns, thwart scraping attempts, and ensure data security.
- Rate Limiting: Setting a cap on the number of requests a single IP address can make within a given time frame can deter scrapers from targeting an airline’s website. This method helps conserve server resources and protects against automated attacks.
- Offering Authenticated APIs: Providing authorized APIs for accessing fare data gives airlines control over how their information is used. This strategy encourages legitimate partnerships and reduces the incentive for unauthorized scraping.
- Implementing CAPTCHA: Introducing CAPTCHA challenges can help differentiate between human users and bots attempting to scrape data. By making it difficult for automated tools to access web pages, airlines can reduce the frequency of unauthorized scraping. However, CAPTCHA cannot be deployed to protect APIs, so stronger API-aware bot management solutions are needed.
- Legal Measures: Airlines can enforce their terms of service by taking legal action against entities that engage in unauthorized scraping. This approach not only discourages scraping but also demonstrates the airline’s commitment to safeguarding its data and business interests.
By combining technological solutions with legal actions, airlines can create a robust defense against unauthorized scraping while promoting secure and legitimate data usage.
Fare scraping presents large challenges
Fare scraping poses significant challenges for airlines, impacting their revenue, operations, and market perception. By understanding the nature of fare scraping and implementing a combination of technical and legal strategies, airlines can protect their data, improve website performance, and maintain a competitive edge in the industry.
How Vercara can help.
Vercara’s UltraAPI product suite is a set of solutions purpose-built to protect APIs against fare scraping and other attacks against APIs. It consists of three components:
UltraBot Manager is an inline solution that sits in front of APIs to detect and block attacks against APIs and automated, unwanted bots that try to perform fare scraping.
UltraAPI Comply is a solution that sits in front of API servers to detect API schemas, data types, and security controls using machine learning to identify security and compliance vulnerabilities and their associated risks.
UltraAPI Discover scans APIs from the perspective of an attacker across the Internet to identify API endpoints, schema definitions, and security controls that protect them.
For more information or to ask us questions, please contact us.
