Web scraping has existed as long as the internet itself. From classifieds to car listings to professional networks, any site with valuable public data has been a target. But a recent discovery highlights how scraping tactics are evolving: malicious Chrome extensions that piggyback on legitimate user traffic to build distributed botnets.

This shift raises important questions for product managers, security leaders, and platform providers. How do you defend against an attack that hides inside normal user behavior? And how do you set realistic expectations for stakeholders when the problem is never truly “solved”?

The New Face of Scraping: Extensions as Infrastructure

Traditionally, scraping relied on automated bots hammering endpoints. Defenses like rate limiting, CAPTCHAs, and IP blocking could slow them down. But malicious extensions change the game.

• How it works: Users install a free extension that provides a useful feature. Hidden inside is code that scrapes websites in the background, routing traffic through the user’s own device and IP address.
• Why it’s effective: To the targeted site, the traffic looks like a real human browsing. The malicious activity is camouflaged within legitimate user sessions.

This makes detection far harder and shifts the burden onto both platforms (like browsers) and the sites being scraped.

Why “Winning” Against Scraping Is a Myth

Companies often invest heavily in anti-scraping measures, celebrate reduced attack volumes, and report success to leadership. But attackers adapt. A new technique emerges, and suddenly the numbers look worse again.

This doesn’t mean the investment failed—it means the threat landscape shifted. Security metrics must be framed with this reality in mind: defense is not a one-time project but an ongoing race.

A useful analogy: you don’t need to outrun the bear, only your slowest friend. If your defenses are strong enough, attackers may move on to easier targets. But if you’re the only source of valuable data—say, a regional classifieds site—you may remain in their sights no matter what.

Thinking Like the Adversary

One of the most powerful insights for product managers is to understand not just the attack vector, but the attacker’s business model.

• If attackers monetize scraped data, can you poison their supply with fake or misleading entries that damage their reputation?
• If they sell accounts or bandwidth, can you introduce unpredictability that makes their product unreliable?

By targeting the economics of abuse, defenders can sometimes achieve more durable results than by simply building higher walls.

The Platform Dilemma

Browser vendors and operating systems face a thorny challenge. Many extensions genuinely solve user problems. Some even offer to “pay users for unused bandwidth”—a model that blurs the line between consent and exploitation.

Should platforms ban such practices outright? Or should they focus on transparency and user education? Drawing the line between acceptable and abusive behavior is not always straightforward.

What Product Managers Should Take Away

For those responsible for trust and safety, a few principles stand out:

• Assume breach. Like Zero Trust security, expect that some scraping will succeed and plan for resilience.
• Communicate clearly. When reporting metrics, explain that attacker behavior shifts and numbers will fluctuate.
• Balance user impact. Blocking malicious traffic without harming legitimate users is a constant tradeoff.
• Invest in intelligence. Share threat data, learn from industry peers, and understand attacker motivations.
• Think long-term. Scraping is not a problem you “solve.” It’s a cost of doing business online, and the goal is to make it harder, less profitable, and less reliable for adversaries.

Final Thoughts

Web scraping may never disappear, but defenders can adapt by combining technical defenses, adversary-aware strategies, and realistic expectations. The rise of malicious extensions is a reminder that attackers innovate constantly. The challenge for product managers and security teams is not to eliminate the threat, but to stay one step ahead—without losing sight of the users they’re protecting.

This article is AI-generated based on the transcript of the episode #7:Scraping, Extensions, Shifting Threats–What PMs Need to Know of the Inverted Podcast.