In January 2025, Triplegangers, a seven-person e-commerce company specializing in 3D image files, fell victim to an unintentional DDoS-like attack from OpenAI's web crawler12. The bot, utilizing 600 different IP addresses, bombarded the site with tens of thousands of server requests in an attempt to scrape Triplegangers' vast database of over 65,000 products and hundreds of thousands of photos13. This aggressive scraping behavior effectively crippled the website, causing it to crash and become inaccessible to legitimate customers45. The incident shed light on the potential risks associated with AI-powered web crawlers and their impact on small businesses relying heavily on their online presence.

The unintended DDoS attack by OpenAI's bot had severe consequences for Triplegangers:

• Complete website downtime prevented customers from accessing products, directly impacting sales and revenue12

• Overwhelming server requests led to increased AWS costs, straining the small company's infrastructure and budget13

• The incident posed a significant risk to Triplegangers' business model, which relies entirely on the availability and protection of their digital assets14

This event underscores the vulnerability of small e-commerce businesses to AI-driven web crawlers, even when the disruption is unintentional56.

To combat the unintended DDoS attack, Triplegangers implemented several mitigation strategies:

• Properly configured a robots.txt file to guide web crawlers

• Set up Cloudflare protection to manage and filter incoming traffic

• Added specific tags to block OpenAI's bot from accessing sensitive areas of the site

These measures successfully halted the aggressive scraping behavior, allowing the e-commerce platform to regain stability and resume normal operations123. The incident highlights the importance of proactive cybersecurity measures for small businesses, especially those with valuable digital assets vulnerable to AI-powered crawlers.

The Triplegangers incident is part of a broader trend of increasing AI-driven threats to e-commerce platforms. Recent studies reveal that retail websites face an average of 569,884 AI-driven attacks daily, with DDoS attacks accounting for 30.6% of all AI-driven threats1. The retail sector has experienced a significant 61% increase in application-layer DDoS attacks compared to the previous year2. This surge in AI-powered attacks highlights the evolving cybersecurity landscape, where traditional defense mechanisms may no longer suffice against sophisticated, automated threats targeting online retailers.