Project description
Helping online travel agents detect malicious bots
The online travel industry is booming. Booking flights through the internet has become the norm, facilitated by countless online travel agents. To compete in the market, they use bots. These are web robots that can steal competitors’ pricing data in real-time and automatically lower the prices on their website. The EU-funded e-DNA BotStop project proposes an innovative, efficient solution: eDNA – a script that detects malicious bots. It will increase efficiency for airline companies and eliminate many disturbances in sales of airline tickets or unexpected cancellations of transactions and other events that are stressful to consumers.
Objective
In the last decade there has been an explosion in Online Travel Agents (OTAs) worldwide. OTAs undertake the mammoth task of undercutting the flight prices of major airlines through the use of Bots (an internet Bot, also known as web robot, WWW robot or simply bot, is a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet.). Bots are used to scrape airlines for valuable data to benchmark aggregate flight costs, which drives down prices for the consumer.
Whilst beneficial to consumers, scraping harms travel companies because:
• Bots can engage with a websites’ server hardware and cause website traffic to run slower, in some cases causing server downtime and Direct Denial of Service (DDoS)
• Long term Search Engine Optimization (SEO) damage; distorting analytical marketing metrics.
• Diverting customers to purchase products via third party resellers, limiting chances for up-sell and cross sell opportunities.
This problem is tackled by anti-scrape approaches. However, current anti-scrape/booking bot solutions are only capable of distinguishing between human traffic and bot traffic through supervised algorithms that do not work to the degree of efficacy required.
Our proposed solution is BotStop an algorithmic approach to identifying Bots and scrapers and to policing malicious application traffic. eDNA will provide a solution which reintroduces transparency into the process of purchasing flights and will streamline customer website experience to ensure a more stress-free experience
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences internet
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence machine learning
- natural sciences computer and information sciences software software applications
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
LE2 0PF LEICESTER
United Kingdom
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.