The website Amazona is using a system called Anubis to defend against automated scraping. The method aims to ensure server availability.
Protection system for server resources
The Amazona platform has implemented a protective mechanism called Anubis. The site administration set up this measure to defend the server against automated scraping by external companies. Heavy scraping traffic can lead to server downtime and render resources inaccessible to regular visitors.
How Anubis operates
The deployed mechanism functions as a compromise and relies on a proof-of-work scheme inspired by Hashcash. For an individual visit, the required computing load remains minimal, but it accumulates heavily during mass scraping operations, making them significantly more costly.
This setup is intended as a temporary placeholder while developers refine fingerprinting techniques to detect headless browsers. These methods include analyzing font rendering so that human visitors are spared from the challenge screen.
Requirements for access
Operating the system relies on modern JavaScript capabilities:
- Browser extensions such as JShelter can interfere with execution.
- Users are asked to disable corresponding plugins for the website.
- The protective technology is powered by BotStopper from Techaro.
Source: Amazona
