Cloudflare Introduces Precursor; One-Click Behavioral Defense Against Modern Bots

Key Terms

captcha technical

A CAPTCHA is a simple online test that helps websites tell real human users apart from automated programs, typically by asking someone to identify distorted text, images, or complete a quick task. For investors, CAPTCHAs matter because they help prevent fraud, automated trading abuse, spam and fake account creation, protecting revenue, customer trust and regulatory compliance much like a bouncer checking IDs at an entrance.

telemetry technical

Telemetry is the automatic collection and transmission of measurements from remote devices, systems, or patients to a central system for monitoring and analysis—like a car sending engine, speed and location data back to a dashboard. For investors it matters because telemetry provides real-time evidence of product performance, safety and user behavior, helping assess revenue potential, operational risk, regulatory compliance and whether a product is meeting market demand.

single page application technical

A single page application (SPA) is a type of website that loads one HTML page and updates content dynamically in the browser using JavaScript, so users interact without full page reloads. For investors, SPAs matter because they shape user experience, load speed, development complexity, hosting needs and search engine visibility—factors that can influence customer engagement, conversion rates and ongoing operating costs; think of it like a smartphone app that switches screens instantly without restarting.

bot score technical

A bot score is a numerical indicator that estimates how likely an online account or message was generated or amplified by automation rather than a real person. It’s produced by algorithms that check patterns like posting speed, content repetition, and network behavior; a high score suggests more automated activity. For investors, bot scores help judge how much online chatter or sentiment may be driven by machines instead of genuine human interest—similar to knowing whether applause at an event is spontaneous or staged.

See more from StockTitan in Google Search and AI answers. Adds StockTitan as a preferred source · opens Google

Add on Google Not now

Built on one of the world’s largest networks, Precursor is the only defense of its kind to replace disruptive checkpoints to stop evasive bots without slowing down users

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leading connectivity cloud company, today announced the general availability of Precursor, a next-generation, continuous behavioral validation engine for bot management. Built directly on Cloudflare’s edge, Precursor runs seamlessly inside web browsers to monitor entire user sessions in order to detect bot automation. Unlike traditional, static CAPTCHAs, it analyzes ongoing interactions in real time to catch advanced bots, improving detection precision without interrupting legitimate users.

For the first time, automated bot traffic has eclipsed human activity on the Internet, now generating roughly 57% of all web requests. This milestone emphasizes a seismic evolution from an Internet built for human clicks to a digital landscape now dominated by AI agents. For organizations and everyday consumers, this means that legacy defenses are blind to a new breed of automated threats that drive up infrastructure costs, manipulate inventory, and compromise data. While a modern bot can easily fake a single action to pass a one-time security check, replicating an entire human journey remains a massive engineering hurdle. To protect the integrity of the global Internet, organizations must move away from static, point-in-time defenses and embrace continuous behavioral validation—analyzing telemetry across an entire session to unmask automated imposters trying to blend into the crowd.

"Traditional security checks look at a single moment in time, but modern bots have gotten smart enough to fake their way through the front door," said Dane Knecht, CTO of Cloudflare. "Instead of just checking an ID at the gate, we are looking at behavior over the entire visit. This makes life seamless for real users, while making it incredibly difficult and expensive for bad actors to fake human behavior. Cloudflare already protects users billions of times a day at critical moments like login and checkout, but until now, the space between those moments was a black box. With Precursor, we’re now eliminating that blindspot."

Now generally available, Precursor provides a session-level view of site activity by continuously collecting robust browser signals to block unwanted automated traffic through:

• Privacy-Led Defense: Built to protect end user confidentiality, Precursor logs aggregate behavioral patterns rather than recording specific user inputs. For example, keyboard activity is recorded exclusively as timing rhythm and cadence—never capturing actual keystrokes.
• Zero-Code, One-Click Setup: Precursor is enabled with one click, automatically allowing Cloudflare to inject a compact, dynamic script passing through the network, requiring no modifications to underlying code. The script evaluates interaction trail dimensions such as mouse movement, scrolling rhythm, typing cadence, clipboard activity, and page visibility duration.
• A Real-Time Analysis Engine: Cloudflare's servers instantly unpack the telemetry data sent from a user's browser and scan it for signs of faked or computer-generated activity. We then validate whether interaction streams map rationally to human behavior, such as cross-referencing that pointer activity aligns with page visibility or text fields are focused during typing events.
• Session-Long Security Measures: Unlike traditional defense challenges that reset per every request, Precursor continuously evaluates the visitor’s user journey across a web or single page application. Automated agents cannot reset their behavioral signatures by refreshing a page, allowing defensive algorithms to adjust a session's Bot Score with compounding context.

To learn more, please check out the resources below:

• Blog: Introducing Precursor: detecting agentic behavior with continuous client-side signals
• Cloudflare Precursor

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) is the leading connectivity cloud company. It empowers organizations to make their employees, applications and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and cost. Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud delivers the most full-featured, unified platform of cloud-native products and developer tools, so any organization can gain the control they need to work, develop, and accelerate their business.

Powered by one of the world’s largest and most interconnected networks, Cloudflare blocks billions of threats online for its customers every day. It is trusted by millions of organizations – from the largest brands to entrepreneurs and small businesses to nonprofits, humanitarian groups, and governments across the globe.

Learn more about Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud at cloudflare.com/connectivity-cloud. Learn more about the latest Internet trends and insights at radar.cloudflare.com.

Follow us: Blog | X | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explores,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “targets,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern Cloudflare’s expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the capabilities and effectiveness of Cloudflare Precursor and Cloudflare’s other products and technology, the benefits to Cloudflare’s customers from using Cloudflare Precursor and Cloudflare’s other products and technology, the timing of when Cloudflare Precursor or any of its related features will be generally available to all current and potential Cloudflare customers, Cloudflare’s technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by Cloudflare’s CTO. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in Cloudflare’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Cloudflare’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on May 8, 2026, as well as other filings that Cloudflare may make from time to time with the SEC.

The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. Cloudflare undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. Cloudflare may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in Cloudflare’s forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on Cloudflare’s forward-looking statements.

©2026 Cloudflare, Inc. All rights reserved. Cloudflare, the Cloudflare logo, and other Cloudflare marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Cloudflare, Inc. in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260713738874/en/

Cloudflare, Inc.
Daniella Vallurupalli
Vice President, Head of Global Communications
press@cloudflare.com

Source: Cloudflare, Inc.